Devastation: Code Lyoko ReBooted
by KJMackley
Summary: The Lyoko warriors encounter an artificial intelligence program. His format: Guardian. They learn of a war against a virus named Megabyte, and that Xana is involved. They race to a small system called Mainframe, and help Bob, Dot and Matrix in the fight.
1. Prologue

**Authors Commentary**

My younger brother is a huge fan of Code: Lyoko, and while he tried to interest me in it for some time, what I saw I wasn't interested in because it seemed very repetitive. It wasn't until I saw some of the big changes of the fourth season that I took some interest. Some elements specifically of the fourth season reminded me of an old favorite show of mine called ReBoot.

Anyway, he showed me how he had some online success with fanfiction. I had a moment of inspiration late one night for a story featuring both shows, and I am very pleased with the way it is turning out.

If you've never heard of ReBoot, it was the first computer animated TV show created the year before Toy Story came out, and featured an entire world and mythology existing inside of a computer. They dealt with a mysterious 'user' who controls their life, travel between systems/cities through 'the net,' and viruses are the villains of the series. I wouldn't be surprised if the show has an influence on Code: Lyoko.

Knowledge of ReBoot is recommended.

For clarification, this chapter will be switching forth between scenes from actual episodes of both series, with some original sequences and connecting them towards the end with my original work.

Hope you enjoy.

**

* * *

**

**Devastation- Code: Lyoko ReBooted**

**Prologue**

* * *

The Escape

Aelita ran along the narrow walkway, with Ulrich Yumi and Odd fighting off the last of the creepers behind her. Laser blasts whizz past her head, encouraging her to run faster.

She heard Odd yell out "Ow! No, go on. I'll take them!" and she turned around to see him run back toward the three remaining creepers and get shot in the process. His body quickly changes back to wireframe and disappears.

She stood there stock still, watching Yumi and Ulrich jump towards her, across the chasm only to fall just short. She reached forward and grabbed Ulrich's hand, who had just barely grabbed hold of Yumi as well.

But the load soon lightened as the creepers devirtualize Yumi, leaving Ulrich's hand dangling in midair.

With an immense pull, Aelita managed to get Ulrich back onto the platform and they kept running towards their goal.

-

Aelita's lost memories.

-

She ran along, desperately trying to keep up with Ulrich who is a far superior sprinter than she is, as they near their goal. But suddenly, she found that there isn't much ground to run on anymore. Glancing down quickly, she saw that the platforms she's been running on are beginning to break off and fall down below. She continued to run as fast as she can, but even Ulrich can't outrun this new trap that Xana has laid for them.

The platform broke away, leaving nothing but open air.

Aelita began to scream as she fell, but instead found herself swooping around, gently bouncing up and down. Looking down, she saw a flying Manta, one of Xana's notorious monsters carrying her up and out of harm's way.

Looking around, she watched as the last of the platform dropped away, as she and Ulrich rode away safely on the Mantas.

"Why? Why is Xana now helping us?" She asked nobody in particular.

"Not Xana," Jeremie said over the intercom, "Franz Hopper! He's controlling the Mantas!" Jeremie said excitedly.

When she heard Jeremie say this, she now noticed the faint white glow surrounding the Mantas, the same glow that Franz Hopper used to activate towers.

The Mantas dropped them off on the only remaining part of the platform: The part withholding Aelita's lost memories. Walking up to the shining orb in awe, and relishing the moment of success, Aelita put her hands on it in order to obtain it.

But to her surprise, nothing happened. In fact, the orb shattered, it wasn't the real memory at all.

-

"It's a trap!"

-

As if cued with Jeremie's exclamation, the entire chamber started to collapse. Small platforms scattered throughout the room and above them are now falling like rain, although none of them anywhere near Aelita.

Ulrich isn't so fortunate. He dodges a few, but his precarious position doesn't allow him much room to move when a huge ledge fell on him and devirtualized him.

Looking around, Aelita saw that they've been fooled the entire time. She was now effectively stranded on a platform in the middle of nowhere, with none of her friends to protect her.

And fear gripped her as she spots the Scythozoa floating ominously towards her.

"No, no no!" She yelled, and heard Jeremie yelling in the background.

"No! Aelita! We've got to do something! Xana's going to get her, going to get the keys to Lyoko!"

Aelita tried to struggle but the Scythozoa's tentacles wrapped around her, creating a paralytic field, and they pressed themselves to her forehead. She tried to keep herself awake, but very soon everything went white.

* * *

Xana roared in triumph, every particle of him in celebration. 

He did it. The other half of the keys to Lyoko were his. He shot a specter into the sky above the factory, creating a broiling storm cloud above the city, reveling in his victory.

He took the first code, the one he stole from Franz Hopper, and combined it with the second one which he just took from his daughter.

And Xana felt free. He had complete control over Lyoko. He can leave the supercomputer at any time.

And there's no time like the present.

* * *

Aelita drifted back smoothly into consciousness, a pleasant sensation filling her body. And she can remember things now. It's as if a locked door had been opened, and she can remember everything that happened before her father sent her to Lyoko. 

_Playing in the snow while her father and mother watched on._

_Listening to her father play the piano. _

_Getting Mr. Puck as a Christmas gift, learning to ride a bike._

_And finally, when the Men in Black came to her door and her father took her into his lab._

"It's Franz Hopper!" she can faintly hear Jeremie saying, "He's restoring Lyoko! He's given Aelita back her memories!"

And Aelita noticed that for the first time in a long time, she felt free.

-

Within a short time Jeremie was able to bring her back to them, and she devirtualized in the chamber. Everyone surrounded the chamber as she came out, exhausted and the fog billowing out around her. She looked at everyone individually, and they all appeared solemn, they all were thinking the same thing.

Xana had won this fight.

* * *

- 

The Defeat of Megabyte

Megabyte emerged from the top of the trashed Principle Office, himself not being in much better shape. He had a slight limp from his fight with the adult Enzo Matrix, and a slash on his abdomen was slowing his speed even further. He overlooked the top, with the tear pulsating angrily and the storm washed sky. A 'beep' came from his wrist device, and he saw all codes needed for the supercomputer were in the tear. 'Finally I can escape this infernal system.'

He didn't even have time to activate the portal when from behind a voice said, 'I don't think so.' and he was whirled around by Matrix and punched in the face. Momentarily dazed, Megabyte was surprised that Matrix was able to get back up here so quickly. The virus dodged the next attack and slammed Matrix to the wall with his greater strength.

Moving forward, Megabyte punched at Matrix, who moved out of the way as the fist crashed into the wall. Matrix grabbed Megabyte from behind and shoved him into the hole, tearing through the metal and forming a larger hole. Frustrated, Megabyte swung out blindly, impacting Matrix in the chest and sending him skidding down the surface of the roof.

Before Matrix could recover, Megabyte rammed him with his arm, sending him flying down the roof slope and landing several meters away. Megabyte hurried his step to get to Matrix as he just began to pick himself up again and kicked him even further down the roof. As the angle grew steeper, he seemed to defy gravity until his descent and impact. With barely any sense of bearing; he grinded into the surface to stop himself from falling off the edge.

Injured, head throbbing, chest heaving with every breath, and exhausted, he lay at the edge with one arm off the side, vaguely feeling the approach of the virus. Megabyte moved with assurance but also haste, finishing this fight was only a nuisance to take care of before his final victory. His last few steps slowed slightly, his claws moving out one at a time from his knuckles, with the last aimed for the renegades' head. No movement from the silent sprite, it seemed to be the final moment for this fight.

As he struck down the virus moved without any noise, yet Matrix moved away so swiftly and suddenly that it was either an intended tactical move or a surprise jump in adrenaline. Whichever it was, the claws jammed into the metal surface, and refused to withdraw quickly.

With that brief moment to get up, Matrix struggled to his knees and made an attempt for Megabytes head. But Megabyte withdrew his claws just in time to catch the fist, and he squeezed it with relish. Matrix recoiled but with his fist held tight he couldn't move far, and Megabyte grabbed him by the throat.

Despite the pain, or because of it, he saw a moment of advantage. Using his available fist, he aimed for Megabytes previously injured abdomen, hitting the virus there repeatedly even after his hand and throat was released. Megabyte stumbled back after another blow, and Matrix backed away slightly.

Megabytes body was tightening from his injuries, he wanted to curl up to reduce the pain, but Matrix clearly was not ready to stop. Megabyte extended his claws out as Matrix wielded AndrAIa's trident and they lunged at one another. This time, the trident smashed straight through the claws. The virus fell, clutching his hand in agony, this was the moment his strength failed him.

On the ground, partially curled up, on top of what represented all his desires for power, Megabyte tried to look at the sprite who beat him. As his blurred vision saw Matrix's outline a foot came down with force on his throat to pin him down, with the trident only microns from his forehead.

The actual thought of losing the war had never entered his mind until then, when his preserved life was the choice of Enzo Matrix, who he thought was a mere boy. Pushing against the foot on his throat, he mumbled out, 'You can't… do this…it goes against…everything…you stand for…'

Leaning into the fallen virus, Matrix replied with all the rage that was left in him, 'You took away my life, destroyed my home, caused nothing but pain and suffering to everyone I hold dear!' He reared and stabbed the trident, Megabyte cringing only to feel the trident brush past his head and imbed itself to the surface.

In surprise the virus looked back at Matrix. The renegade rested on the trident. 'Surprised? Don't be.' His voice had soften slightly, as though any glitches in his programming had just been patched. 'You're not worth it. Mainframe will always endure. Remember this defeat, this humiliation. Remember you can never win.'

Matrix stood over his fallen enemy, he looked at him square in the face, dominate and victorious. He removed the trident from the metal surface.

With a nudge, Megabyte pushed away himself from Matrix's grasp and fell off the edge, to land on a beam part way down. Behind them, the tear that was always in the background suddenly stabilized, and the golden spires of the supercomputer were seen in the portal.

Pulling himself up, with a clear limp, Megabyte activated his wrist device, diverting the portal to the edge of the beam. He looked up to see Matrix standing, to be joined with AndrAIa as they look down at him. He called to them from well outside their reach, 'No boy! You remember this day, where I turned defeat into victory! And left you with a dying system.'

With the portal so close, Megabyte dragged his leg along to reach the edge, but as he reached out to touch his victory, the golden spires changed into the angry red and black tendrils of the web. This was the final humiliation for him as tentacles snagged his hand, then continued to his head. They flung out to grab his body, and tie down his arms and legs, not allowing him to make any sort of serious effort to resist as the web creature sucked him to the web.

Matrix and AndrAIa watched in surprise, unsure of what exactly happened. Within moments it closed with the normal _pop_.

* * *

From within the digital sea, the hub to Lyoko can be seen. Its triangular prongs fanned out and a ghostly mist sifts out from the opening. The only way it was distinguishable from the sea is that it is darker, and had the appearance of a cloud. While the sea moved in a certain rhythm, the cloud did not. It circled around the hub in an almost celebratory fashion, then moved away, snaking down and far away from the hub. 

After time the cloud hit a wall deep inside the digital sea. It backed away, then pushed along the surface, examining its structure. The wall extended in an infinite length past this point, effectively becoming a barrier in the digital sea. But the cloud was unwavering in its purpose, sliding along the wall, when suddenly it reacted to an energy source nearby.

The cloud followed the direction of the vibration and came upon a risen section of the barrier. Looking around, it comes upon an entrance to go into the barrier.

Entering inside, it is a monolith, with multiple chambers which appear to be made of stone. In a massive room, there is a relic centered, with markings covering it. All the markings have some type of similarity to them, which surround a central mark. It was a circle, divided into two hemispheres light and dark, and a diamond in the middle, also divided on different sides light and dark.

The cloud mist fell overtop the relic, looking it over, some of its wisps touching the center mark. The wisps suddenly take on a more consistent form, eventually having the appearance of hands. The rest of the cloud also began to coagulate into a humanoid form, not quite there but distinctive enough.

The new form began pressing the markings on the relic in a pattern, and a clear view-screen appeared, showing a map of the monolith and an identical structure someplace else. An image appeared, showing information and a video feed of an angry black and red environment.

Pressing a few more buttons in order, the room began to change form, shifting walls and pillars rising from the ground, until the floor space was twice its previous size, and a large hallway was created that opened up directly to the outside. A wall revealed the same primary emblem on the relic, but with the Lyoko symbol faintly imprinted into it. The view-screen brought up a name that took precedence, "Project Valhalla"

Then it went through a scan. "Identity Confirmed: XANA."

* * *

Upon emerging from the portal, Megabyte saw his assailant. The creatures body was several times his size, but that was not why it was so dangerous. There appeared to be an impossible amount of tentacles from its body, which flailed about in every direction. With little strength to struggle, Megabyte could only watch as the creature pulled him closer. 

More of the tentacles wrapped around him, creating a tightening fleshy cocoon, leaving only his head exposed. The creatures head looked at him carefully, either as a meal or a serious enemy. The tentacles were still moving, like it was examining every aspect of him.

The creature bared its teeth, trying to show dominance, then it opened its mouth, revealing a second layer, and even a third layer, until it appeared as a pit of nails. Megabyte had enough, he was not to spend his first moments in the web only to be deleted.

From his good hand, he expanded his nails, and despite the suffocating cocoon, he grabbed hold of a tentacle and pinched. The creature retracted its mouth and grunted in surprise. Not done yet, Megabyte pinched harder and the creature wailed in pain, the cocoon lightened up and he could move his arms. Even with hundreds of those tentacles, the creature could feel pain in every single one.

The creature flailed the pinched tentacle, but Megabyte held on, causing more pain, until the creature grabbed hold of every limb and pulled him tight like he was being cornered. Then with a final whip, it escaped the grasp of the virus at injury to itself.

Megabyte was not finished resisting and fought with more energy at the creatures attack, with its flailed tentacles smacking his body. In a well timed moment, he severed a tentacle, the lost limb falling away and the stub wiggling in agony.

It pulled its tentacle away, and Megabyte grabbed hold of another, the creature soon got the picture that Megabyte was not going to be an easy prey, meal, or even a fun toy. It backed away, snarled with its rows of teeth, then moved off.

Megabyte found himself drifting in the web for a long time, it wasn't until his escape from the creature that he took notice of the searing atmosphere of the web. He could feel his shell corroding ever so slightly; from what the stories of the web have said, he would soon become a mass of rock and metal and mutate into something similar to the creature he just fought.

The web had a rhythm to it, with distant creatures moving together, swaying in unison, and far off storms releasing their energy between the layers of clouds. He managed to hit a rock formation, which at least gave him something to get his bearings on. He had nothing here, and he would rather be bound to an inferior system then to build an empire in this wasteland.

'What was it..."I'd rather rule in hell then serve in heaven." Whoever said that was mistaken.' The web was the epitome of everything he was not. It was a chaotic mass of degraded programs and corrupted files. His format was supposed to bring order and rule as the dominate force.

-

It was what he was programmed to do.

-

He could infect and spread out his forces here, but what was the point of infecting corrupted files?

He could see in the distance the same type of creature that dragged him into this place, and it turned towards him. He stood firm and extended his claws, 'Come then. I'd rather be deleted in battle then by degradation.'

As the creature came closer, Megabyte could see the marks of a previous encounter it had, injuries he had inflicted. 'Well then, you have a sense of revenge. At least there is something I can relate to here.' A tentacle flung out and Megabyte grabbed hold of it, pinching it as he had done before.

The creature reared around and grabbed Megabyte by the ankle, pulling him upside down. It became a flurry of movement with mass of slimy tentacles and Megabytes amazing strength. Energy was expelling from the creatures body from Megabytes' desperate slashes. The virus was not doing much better, but was thrown around and the strain was making any previous injury greater.

If Megabyte was able to pay attention to his surroundings during this struggle he would have noticed a strange sight in the web. A large creature came behind the web creature he was fighting. This creature did not look like anything in the web, with a clear appearance instead of the scaly skin all web creatures had. This creature also had tentacles, but they were smooth, clear, tube like in appearance and were gentle in its movements.

This new creature came up to the web creature and inserted several of its tubes into its head. The web creature reacted to the pressure but the change was almost instant. It grew docile, then catatonic. When it was entirely still, its tentacles slackened and dropped away.

Megabyte found himself completely free, and only now did he notice the clear creature. The membrane creature moved in closer to the virus and looked him over. It emitted a white pulse that surrounded him and it continued on. Megabyte was curious, the creature was scanning him, 'What could you possibly want with me?'

The creature then reached out and grabbed hold of Megabyte around the waist, and started dragging him away. After already facing a tentacle creature, he was ready to fight back, but realized that it was not attempting to harm him, but take him somewhere. 'Well now, I see you have plans. If you wanted me deleted you would have done nothing. I'll see what you have for me.'

* * *

The membrane creature emerged from a massive web storm, with Megabyte in tow. The creature had maintained an energy field around Megabyte, a method to keep him safe from the dangers of the web storm. But the time in the web was still having its effect on the virus. Within only a short time, Megabyte was looking degraded, his deep blue armored shell having faded to a duller color, and pockets of distinct corrosion already visible on his face and torso.

Megabyte noticed that the web storm completely surrounded the space they arrived in, like it was the eye of the storm. In the far distance was an ancient looking structure, floating in the exact center of the eye. Megabyte looked up at the silent creature that held him, wondering what the creatures' intentions were.

Only by careful watch did he notice the creature starting to sizzle and corrode far worse than he was. Its' transparent body hid the fact until now. "You are quite the resilient one, aren't you? But you're not native to this place."

Coming upon the structure he could see the nature of the design, both the top and bottom were domed, with the center being a series of pillars and cross beams, giving the overall shape of a cylindrical capsule. The creature maneuvered onto a platform, releasing Megabyte onto the floor, and continuing on into a hallway. Megabyte followed, taking in the unique appearance of the structure.

He saw a large tablet covered in binary; he read the markings, then mumbled to himself, 'Archaic gibberish.'

Megabyte continued down the hallway, eventually finding the creature writhing in pain at the door way to a large room. He watched as the corrosion eventually takes over and the creature disintegrates. Curious, he enters the massive room, structured with pillars for support and a large pyramid shaped object in the center.

He examines the pyramid, looking over the markings that cover it, they seem to be a special coding of which he is not familiar with. The symbols form mostly square shapes, with variations in the designs and whether they form a complete shape. Centered in the pyramid on one side is a distinctive marking, much larger than the other symbols. It had two rings of different sizes, with a solid dot in the middle, a single column emerges from the top of the outer ring and three smaller columns are at the bottom following the rings' curve.

Megabyte presses the symbol and the room rearranges, shifting walls and pillars until the room is larger, and a tunnel appears that exposes the room to a direct view of the web environment. In front of him a circular hatch is revealed, one that has the same primary symbol as on the pyramid, along with a faint impression of the universal program icon.

Megabyte looked at the symbol, and looked at the pyramid. He couldn't understand the language, so there was no way to operate whatever device this was.

A voice echoed throughout the chamber, seemingly from both nowhere specifically and everywhere at once. "Virus: Class Three. Program infector." The voice spoke with intensity and a gravelly sound. There was little room for subtlety.

Megabyte looked around, startled by the sudden registration call. After a moment and he could not see anyone, he says, "Who is there?"

The voice continued, "Designation: Megabyte. Generational virus. Previous format, class 2 Killabyte. Upgraded format, class 5 Gigabyte, energy absorption capabilities."

Megabyte was still looking around. "Show yourself."

"Activate the algorithmic code marked (LEAOQUO.)"

Megabyte was racing in thought as to who was talking to him, and the fact he didn't know who this was, made it so he didn't like it. "I don't take orders." He finally says defiantly.

The voice was silent for a moment, then repeated with a greater emphasis, "The algorithmic code is activated by..."

'Do you hear me, imbecile?!" Megabyte roared out with confidence. 'I will not do as you command. I am bound by no CPU!'

The voice quickly responds, 'Designation: Megabyte. Sister Virus Designation: Hexadecimal, class four. Transfinite energy capabilities.'

Megabyte was starting to understand the nature of his new companion. He could not confront this being directly, this was a signal from a distant source. 'So you know how to use a read-me file. I'm impressed,' Megabyte said with spite. 'Googling my history will not be of benefit to you.'

The voice now expelled some anger, obviously due to Megabytes uncooperative attitude, 'I saved you from deletion by web program 3402. I controlled the scythozoa that brought you here. I need a virus to unlock the gate.' The voice enunciated each sentence with the same intensity and gravelly tone.

Megabyte replied, 'I fail to see the difference between deletion and helping you escape whatever prison you are in. I will never be a servant in hell. I owe you nothing.'

'I am far from being a prisoner, though I know what it is like. '

The virus folded his arms and stepped back from the console. 'There is an old adage, you can't trust a program who won't even share his format.'

The voice remained silent for a short time, then said, 'My designation is X.A.N.A. My format is of no concern to you.'

Megabyte could sense the negotiating leverage he had, this "XANA" clearly had influence and power but needed him for this key purpose. 'Am I to simply accept that? A name I've never heard before and still no format. Given your nature, I'd assume you are a virus like myself. And there is rarely any honor among viruses.'

'You are mistaken, I am as far above viruses as you are above binomes.'

Megabyte smirked at last comment, amused at the pride that this being had.

Xana continued, 'Suffice it to say, I am merely following the ambitions of my programming. I can assume you understand that.'

Megabyte was not expecting such a comment. He took careful thought, then hesitantly replied, 'Yes.'

'This is a hub, designed as the only access between your realm and mine.'

'So you are not from the net or the web?'

'No, I am not. Now activate the coding that I described to you.'

A laugh escaped from Megabyte. 'You still don't understand, despite all your knowledge, all your commands and attempts at negotiation. All _this_... is for you, there is no benefit for me. Nothing that gives me what _**I**_ desire.'

Xana quickly changed the topic and said, 'Are you aware of your changed coding?'

Megabyte was taken back. 'What?'

'Your code, it has streams of data that is consistent with a guardian program, registration Four-Five-Two.' A short pause was given to let it sink in. X.A.N.A. then jumps back as quickly as the subject had been changed. 'What _is_ your desire? Revenge?'

Megabyte is stunned by the revelation, then turns his thoughts to the last question. 'Revenge can not accurately describe what I want to do with those that banished me here... I want to devastate them.'

Xana seemed to take his turn to ponder Megabyte's comment. 'I can assist you with that.'

-

* * *

**Authors Commentary**

I think I'll have some fun and provide a teaser for the next chapter.

_Members of Lyoko go through their routines, having fun while the dilemma of Xana hangs over their heads. Meanwhile, the return of Megabyte to Mainframe yields many questions, which the Guardian Collective want answered. To do this, they send an operative to the deepest parts of the web, who finds a monolith…_

Reviews are welcome. If you want to flame, go ahead but by strict definition flames are not constructive criticism. Flames are funny to me, just because the person is trying to look all-powerful from a keyboard...So flames are welcome too, I could use a good laugh.


	2. The Red Flag

**Authors Commentary**

This chapter is designed a lot like the regular life sequences on Code Lyoko, and is more to set up a few themes then to officially start the story. That will be the next chapter. To clarify, this is set approximately 8 months after the first chapter, in the Lyoko timeline being the fourth season after completing Skidbladnir and in ReBoot just after the Daemon Wars. There will be more scenes from ReBoot, but again it is used as a starting point for this story. I found it difficult to figure out what was needed, because I didn't want everything from the episode in the story, but to make the story more cohesive to anyone I had to put in more than I was planning on. The story will bounce between Code Lyoko, Reboot, and an original character.

I have to thank my brother for proofreading this, he's been blunt when some things didn't work.

* * *

Devastation- Code Lyoko Rebooted

Chapter 1: The Red Flag

The soccer ball popped into the air. Ulrich kept on the balls of his feet, watching the arc. He calculated trajectory, speed, and the approximate distance to the goal almost instantly. Of course, he didn't consciously plan for each, he did it all on instinct.

Leaning forward, he leaped to gather momentum into his jump. Pulling backward in mid-air, he brought up his foot and performed a clean bicycle kick. The ball briefly warped in shape upon impact and shot off towards the goal. The goals defender did not anticipate the quick shot and could not dive fast enough.

A whistle goes off and the referee raised one hand, 'Point for red team.'

Ulrich smiled at the success while panting from the move. He rolled back to his feet, shook his head and started running to the center of the field.

A member of the other team started loudly mumbling incoherent sentences. The reason being if he actual started swearing, he would be taken off the field by the referee. He then points at Ulrich in an accusatory way. 'You suck, Stern. Who was supposed to guard him?'

Ulrich kept running to the center of the field, turned around and jogged backwards when he was close. Looking at the other kid, he just shrugged his shoulders.

The goalie threw in the ball and the game started up again. Out in the stands Jeremie was at his laptop, mumbling some things into his head set and typing away.

Yumi exited a nearby building with a dozen other classmates, having finished a history test. Yumi threw her bag over her shoulder and broke from the group with a wave goodbye. She walked over to the soccer field and paused there a moment, watching Ulrich get tripped by a slide tackle. Ulrich brushed it off and rolled to his feet again, running down the field. Yumi walked along the side, observing the game until she arrives at the bleachers, then sat next to Jeremie. 'So how many hours are you up to now?'

With only a brief glance to the corner of his laptop, he responded, 'Eighteen hours and twenty-three tests.' and he kept working on his new program.

'How close are you to finishing it?'

Jeremie held up a finger, indicating to give a moment to wait. Speaking into the headset, he said, 'Aelita, give it a try now.'

Aelita's voice could be heard in his headset. 'Running the compilation program.'

Jeremie took off his head set, then his glasses and rubbed his eyes. 'The last attempt gave an 89 percent accuracy score.'

'Any luck with locating Williams' digital signature.'

Jeremie returned his glasses. 'The internet is constantly expanding and deleting old files. It isn't a simple matter of running a search program, you have thousands of programs that could be concealing William. And with the physical manifestation of the internet through Lyoko, the location of hubs and files are in a constant state of movement.'

'Jeremie, I don't pretend to know half of what you do about this stuff, but I know that you...WATCH OUT!'

Yumi jumped forward to the next row of bleachers to intercept a soccer ball about to hit Jeremie. Jeremie flinched and pulled his laptop closer to his body, protecting it.

Down on the field, one of the players was waving to them apologetically, while another player was flat on his back, the unfortunate origin of the ricochet. Ulrich was nearby, laughing a little at the moment. 'That was good, Yumi.'

Yumi breathed a sigh of relief before throwing it back. Jeremie resituated himself and said, 'We all have our talents.'

He put his headset back on. 'Aelita, how is it working?'

'Not good, it has shut itself down. There was a processing error. It gave 84 percent accuracy.'

Jeremie grumbles out a moan and lays his head down. He mumbles through his sleeve, 'I don't understand. I can't find any flaws in the program. It's like the computer's mainframe doesn't want it to work.' He repositions the microphone. 'Aelita, thanks but I'm done for today.'

Aelita quickly asked for Jeremie to pass the headset to Yumi. Yumi put it on. 'Yeah Aelita.'

'The girls-only social is at seven o'clock tonight. Bring your favorite movie if you want, everyone else is bringing theirs and we'll decide which one when it starts. Be ready for ice cream.'

'Okay.' Yumi passed the headset back to Jeremie, who ended the connection. 'Sounds like it'll be a good party.'

She shrugged a little, 'I don't know, most of the people that will be there are just faces to me. Aelita is about the only girl I'm really friends with.'

'Sometimes it's good to go outside of your circle.' Jeremie was about to say something more but was interrupted by a large yawn. Upon finishing, he shook his head and then folded his laptop.

Yumi looked at the sluggish Jeremie, and said, 'You need to get some serious sleep. I would suggest taking the weekend off of any screens.'

Jeremie managed a tired half-chuckle. Yumi slung her bag over her shoulder and had just turned to head down when Jeremie said, 'Have you ever heard of the ghost in the machine?'

'Are you referring to XANA?'

'I guess that would be the most literal incarnation of the name. But I'm talking about the actual concept.' He folded his computer into its bag and began strapping it in.

'I think I heard it in a movie or something. It's about random computer actions appearing as artificial intelligent behavior.'

'Yeah, a cryptic theory is that the ghost actually _is _intelligent behavior. I've thought about why my computer will not cooperate with certain programs. I have no explanation for it except for the ghost in the machine.' He picked up his computer bag. 'I'm probably just rambling, I have been awake for 23 hours.'

Yumi smiled and nodded, 'Get some sleep.'

* * *

Fearful Symmetry

Turbo walked down the hallway, entering his office with a stack of files he needed to sort. His role as Prime Guardian rarely left him with time to not stamp his electronic signature on everything. In the past, he would like to sneak away and get in a few rounds of jet golf, but with the rebuilding after the Daemon Wars, things were worse. A vid-window opened up in front of him. Bob was on the screen, 'Turbo, we've encountered a problem. Code 5.01.'

'Viral infiltration. What is the classification?'

'You already know this virus, it's Megabyte. He was the identity of the other me. The one found immediately after the end of the viral war.'

Turbo set everything he had to the side, 'Megabyte copied your form? …how is that possible?'

'Let me show you.'

Bob sent over a second vid-window, containing video footage of a wedding.

The footage started normal enough with Dot at the altar looking beautiful in her gown, and Bob in the formal guardian uniform. But everything became confusing as a second Bob, with a degraded uniform, confronted them. He began pleading with Dot about how he wasn't the copy, then he argued with the other Bob, which would have turned to blows between the two Bobs. But Dot stopped the fight and begged the degraded Bob to let go. Even though he was hurt and dejected, Bob respected her wishes. His keytool glitch, suddenly detached from his arm and connected to the formally dressed Bob, resulting in a very smug look. But that quickly turned to pain as Glitch performed a code download, then jumped back to the degraded Bob and reversed it into an upload. This Bob received a code patch and returned to his previous appearance, with short hair and the classic uniform. Glitch had recognized the difference between the two, and the other Bob washed over in energy and enlarged in mass, reverting to his actual form, Megabyte.

There is an ensuing scuffle where Megabyte terrorizes the guests and fights Bob. Eventually Megabyte hides away from the group, but doesn't notice an abandoned camera as he grabs the nearest binome, a very panicked Specky. In full view of the camera, Megabyte reforms himself into an identical Specky: glasses, suit and moppy hair.

Turbo was amazed, 'So, it's confirmed, Megabyte has Trojan Horse viral capacity now.'

Bob added, 'He can duplicate any form. He could be anyone, right in front of us, and we'd never know.'

The little Enzo started panicking, 'No way, he could be here. He could even be me! I could be Megabyte!' His dad, Welman, moved to him, sternly trying to calm him down.

Time was important, Turbo thought, the longer Megabyte was around, the easier it would be for him to blend in. 'I'm sending a viral insulate team right now. They'll be there within nanoseconds.'

Bob quickly said, 'No.' which gathered a surprise from everyone around, especially Matrix.

Bob repeated to Turbo, 'No. Keep your executioners where they are. We'll deal with this ourselves.'

A sigh came from Turbo, 'So now you want to save Megabyte. Still clinging to your radical theories, huh Bob.'

'Look Turbo, I don't care what you think about my theories anymore. If we did it your way, if we deleted Hexadecimal the moment she got here, the entire net would have been destroyed by Daemon.'

Turbo was stunned, he knew Bob was right about that. A moment of thought came from Phong, 'The read-me of fate is a complex program indeed.'

Bob finished, 'We'll call for your help if we need it.' And he closed the vid-window.

Turbo sat at his desk for a minute. He thought about what Megabyte had become, and what Bob said about doing it alone. He brought up a vid-window to his secretary, 'Miss Kredite, contact and tell Guardian 627 to meet with me immediately.' He closed the vid-window and looked at the file on Megabyte. He said quietly to himself. 'Bob, I'll let you do this your way, but I have some questions I want answered. Where did Megabyte get that upgrade?'

* * *

The Long Haul

The bell rang and all classroom doors opened at once. Odd and Ulrich escaped from one of those doors and walked down the hallway. 'That was some test, huh Odd.'

'Tell me about it. "X + Y + Z 42, find X, Y, and Z." I don't know and I don't care.'

A laugh escaped from Ulrich. 'Yeah, it's only Wednesday but I am so ready for the three day weekend.'

Odd jumped in front of him, then walked backwards so he could face him. 'Well, since the girls have this "girl's only" party going on, why don't we pry Jeremie away from his laptop and we do a few rounds on my Zeta-Station playing "Soldiers of Fortune." We'll make a night of it: pizza, popcorn, soda, and any junk food we can afford after that. We'll call it, Three-Day Weekend Eve.' He gently waves both his hands as though he was unveiling a panoramic scenery. 'Ooh, we can rent that spy movie that just came out.'

They turned a corner and went outside into the courtyard. Ulrich said, 'Sounds like you've been planning this a day or two.'

'Oh, just maybe.'

--

At Jeremie's dorm room, he was woken up from a nap by someone knocking at his door. Jeremie rolled out of bed with a groan. As the door opened it revealed Aelita on the other side smiling softly. 'I'm sorry, did I wake you?'

Jeremie rested on the edge of the open door, then grinned as he displayed a small distance with his thumb and pointer finger. 'Just a little. Come in.'

She takes a seat on Jeremie's computer chair while he sits back on the bed. 'So, what is it?'

'I just wanted to talk to you about something.' Aelita seemed surprisingly hesitant, like it was difficult to say. 'I've been thinking...well, do you ever worry that all we are doing is patching up a hole? Like an old pair of jeans.'

Jeremie responded, 'I have thought about that sometimes. But we can be thankful we have the return to the past program.'

Aelita shook her head, 'No, this is actually what is bothering me. We spend all this time fighting Xana, and cleaning up his messes. No one gets hurt because no one can remember what happened. So we could let anything happen and no one receives the consequence.'

A questioning look passed over Jeremie's face. 'I'm not quite sure what you are getting at.'

Aelita paused for a moment, her nose wrinkled slightly as she tried to formulate the best choice of words. 'It's like...We just spent most our day getting that program to work. It still isn't working. We are snooping around the internet like we're in the dark, and even then we don't have any idea how we are going to finish this. We just push dirt over his next attack. It isn't a means to an end, but fixing a current problem.'

Jeremie paused and looked at the floor for a moment, letting what Aelita said sink in. 'Well...I, I was thinking that after we get William back, that by building a makeshift tower around Xana we could trap and contain him, just like Lyoko was able to imprison him before.'

Aelita leans back in the chair and sighed, then said, 'Jeremie, ever since I met you, you've been confident that your intelligence would help us get through any problem. But I also know that you use intelligence to cover up how you really feel.'

Raising his hand, he rested his forehead on his knuckles, realizing what Aelita was getting at. 'Okay, I…I'm not sure if we… if _I_ can permanently stop Xana now. Not while he is in the net.'

Aelita leaned forward, 'So…where do we go from here?'

'Well, until something pops up and lets us know what Xana is doing, we continue with what we are doing, and I'll work on something to keep him contained. Ultimately, we need to make sure we can seriously hurt him in some way.'

There is a knock at the door and Odd pops his head in. 'Oh, hi Aelita. Hey Einstein, we're getting snacks for our own party, put on some shoes and come with us.'

Jeremie looks around, finding the time, 'I was hoping for another few hours of sleep.'

By this time Odd was all the way inside the room. He grabbed Jeremie's shoes and tossed them to him. 'You can sleep later, this is important.' He rummaged through Jeremie's closet and threw him a fresh pair of clothes to change into.

Aelita stood up, 'Well, I'll get ready for my party, and you seem to be having a fun shindig of your own.' She walked out of the room with a smile and wave, partially closing the door behind her.

Odd got Jeremies' bag and laptop, knowing Jeremy never left without it, then stopped for a second, 'Wait, did she actually say "shindig" in a sentence.' Jeremie just shrugged.

* * *

Beyond the Web

Joel, Guardian 627, maneuvered along the outside of a massive web storm, one that was much larger than the others. His ship, a small two passenger Guardian escort vessel, the "Expedition," was specifically modified for travel in the corrosive web atmosphere. Joel had light teal skin and dark green hair, mostly messy but still kept it short. His normal guardian uniform was covered by a red colored environmental suit, sans helmet. He stared at the web storm near the ship, and his mind wandered to his earlier meeting with Turbo. He was given a shotgun assignment to explore the web for the source of Megabytes upgrade. It wasn't a simple assignment, the web is usually off-limits due to its dangerous and code degrading nature. But if was to take a second or several days it had to be done.

'Vostro, activate recording log.' His keytool, in its own language, used grinds and whirling noises from its center gear to indicate it was accessing the ships logs from its docking station. A red light turned on indicating the recording had started. 'I can't penetrate my scanners much further into a large storm, a storm 15 times larger in fact. The cloud is inconsistent with the other storm patterns. The only guess is that it isn't natural, and there may be something inside that is causing the sensor barrier and abnormal scans. I am setting a course to see if I can ride through the storm and see inside.'

The recording stopped and Joel grabbed hold of the sliding control rods, turning the ship perpendicular to the storm. He leaned forward on the controls and the ship moved into the storm. The ship began rocking and shaking with the turbulence, but he continued forward to ride it out. Vostro alerts Joel to an energy ribbon arcing in their direction, and Joel banked hard to the side, pulling a helix twist and the ribbon narrowly missed the aft of the Expedition.

The journey continued this way for some time, the ship managing the rough treatment, until it emerged from the storm, entering a massive calm spot, the center of the superstorm. Joel looked over the space he had just entered, amazed at what he just found. Without removing his gaze from a massive cylindrical structure at the center, he said, 'Vostro, sensor ping.'

The Expedition sent out an energy wave so the ship could read returning vibrations, but it almost immediately rebounded back to the ship. The sudden reverberation produced a deafening whine inside the ship and Joel covered his ears in pain. 'Son of a null! That hurt.' He shook his head to regain his thought process and said, 'Vostro, what was that?!'

Vostro started talking to him in the keytool language, whirling its gear around and back and forth, having the impression it was just as frustrated as Joel. Joel shook his head again, 'It has the properties of a firewall rebound? That can't be it. Unless we are right in the middle of the threshold, but I don't know of any firewall that works like that.' He looked at the structure, then said to himself, 'It seems like no one is supposed to know about this place.'

* * *

Odd, Jeremie, and Ulrich walked into Odd and Ulrich's room carrying grocery bags filled with food. Ulrich and Jeremie set theirs down, while Odd let his bag spill as he ran to set up his game console. 'What do you guys want to do, story mode or online?' 

Ulrich quickly packed the ice cream in the small fridge, 'I need to warm up a little before going online.'

'Story mode it is. Ready Jeremie?'

Jeremie sat back, 'No you can play together, I'll get the movie. Besides, when there are only three people someone has the larger area of the TV screen and it hurts the other players.'

Odd grabbed a handful of gummy worms and stuffed them in his mouth. 'Maybe you could get the William clone over here to be the fourth man. You could program him with the skills.'

Jeremie laughed a little, 'Okay, I create a polymorphic specter that can take on the form of anyone, give it superpowers if I wanted, while using the most advanced supercomputer in the world, and I spend hours to program him to use a game controller. Yeah that's real productive.'

Ulrich busted out laughing and Odd laughed a little from the joke at his expense. 'Okay… alright… I get it.' After a moment, Odd suggested, 'Though I wonder, how amazing would a game be if designed by the supercomputer?'

Jeremie was in the middle of pulling out a pop can and just shook his head with a smile while Ulrich buried his face in his hand. Ulrich leaned towards Jeremie, 'Maybe, just to humor him, say you'll work on in later. Like, in five years.'

Jeremie shrugged, 'If it wasn't for the whole Xana fight we have going, Lyoko would be the ultimate video game.' He stood up and opened the door, 'I'll be back in a few minutes with the DVD.' The door closed behind him.

Odd and Ulrich kept playing Soldiers of Fortune for a little while longer, warning each other of enemies around the corner, and Odd was especially getting into it. He contorted his body when an enemy caught him by surprise and killed him. 'Aw man…I should have seen that coming.' He then began a new line of conversation. 'Oh yeah, today in the courtyard after physics I started talking to this beautiful Irish girl, Laurin. I'm hoping to get a movie with her on Saturday.'

Ulrich thought to himself for a moment, 'Wait, what happened to Whitney?'

Odd shifted slightly, 'Oh…uh…she said that she enjoyed our date but she had recently "acquired" a boyfriend.'

'Let me guess, she started asking around about your name. There seems to be a pattern. You should have seen it coming.'

'Nobody's perfect. Besides I could easily point out your "will they won't they" deal going on with Yumi. _But I don't_, even though it is as easy to see as daylight.' Ulrich was about to reply but Odd cut him off, 'I know… "We're just friends." …You've told me plenty of times.'

If it was anyone else besides Odd, Ulrich would have been hurt by the comment, but he knew Odd well enough that he was only joking around. It still managed to quiet Ulrich down and they kept up with their current mission level.

--

The ice cream social was going on in the girls dorms, with the lounge being used as the primary location but they were scattered all down the hallway. Yumi filled up a glass with ice cream, then covered it with root beer, making a tasty float. She sat back from the scene, sipping a little from her float. There was a group of people watching a romantic comedy on a movie projector, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

Aelita moved from a circle of people over to Yumi. She had a simple sundae with some peanuts sprinkled on top. 'Hey Yumi, there's a girl over there who said that Odd wanted to take her out. Should we warn her?'

Yumi smiled at comment. 'Nah, I don't think Odd would appreciate it, and he doesn't need our help in his quest to alienate every girl at this school.'

They both started laughing. In between the giggles, Aelita managed to say, 'I think we have too much fun at Odd's expense. But you can't really say that he doesn't deserve it.'

'That's true.'

There was a slight pause in the conversation, and Aelita noticed that Yumi seemed a little distant in her mannerisms. 'You seem tense. Is something wrong?

Yumi was caught by surprise, not realizing she had been that obvious. 'Well, I've never really felt comfortable in big groups.'

'You've done all right with our group.'

'There are only five of us, and it was only a fluke that I hooked up with all of you anyway. I just don't really feel the need to float around from one group to another.'

Aelita finished the last bite from her sundae and tossed the plastic bowl and spoon in the garbage. 'I guess I kind of dragged you over here, didn't I?'

'Oh no, that's fine. It's probably better for me to be out doing something then be at home watching tv.'

'Well hey, things are almost done here, I'll walk with you to your house.'

'Okay.'

In short order they were crossing the park on the way to Yumi's house. Night had settled in not long ago, but only now did the stars begin to shine through.

Aelita walked along with her hands in her pockets, gazing at the stars along the way. In a casual way, she asked Yumi, 'Not to sound depressing, but do you ever regret becoming involved with Lyoko?'

'No.' The answer came surprisingly quick to Yumi. 'I guess, some days I like it less than others, but there is something very special about what we do.'

'I sometimes wish that Jeremie never turned on the supercomputer. This afternoon I hit a low spot and complained to him about how pointless our mission is. I feel kind of helpless with this whole thing.' They both were silenced by the comment. Aelita really didn't want to appear depressing, but there was a hint of relief from saying it.

After a moment, Yumi managed to form a reply, 'I don't want to hear anything about "the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many." Just because we left the supercomputer on to rescue you, it doesn't mean that you have committed some great sin. We'll take care of our problems as they come, and not deal with what is in the past.'

The conversation was not lightening up much, but Aelita still had one more question to ask. 'You've said that you feel guilty over William. Does it ever hurt you inside?'

This answer seemed to come just as quickly as the last, 'Only enough to keep me motivated.'

They came up to Yumi's porch and she stepped up. Turning toward Aelita, she said, 'I thought about what you asked, about regretting my responsibility with Lyoko.'

'Yeah?'

'Xana is responsible for his own actions, and we are responsible for our own actions. We keep Lyoko a secret so that no one gets hurt, and we do what we can to make sure Xana doesn't hurt anyone else.'

'I guess you're right.'

Yumi smiled a little, 'Plus it's cool to have superpowers.'

Aelita snickered, then they both shared an honest laugh.

--

Jeremie had returned with the movie and they were watching a car chase sequence. There was a partially eaten pizza on the floor, but they had switched over to the junk food. Odd had a bowl of ice cream in front of him, but was regularly dropping a few more gummy worms for each bite. Ulrich had some popcorn, munching away as a car exploded, the light reflecting off his face. He mentions on the side, 'I have to admit, Odd, this night has been pretty fun.'

'Of course, it's what I do.'

Jeremie added, 'Yeah, it's nice to have a free evening once in a while. But remember, we're going to do a deep internet search tomorrow, so try to keep your afternoon open.'

Odd groaned, 'Ah man, even for this weekend?'

'Yes Odd.' Jeremie said with a touch of sarcasm.

'Why do you always have to be the responsible one?'

'Because I'm working with you.'

Odd thought about that for a moment, then agreed with him.

* * *

Predator

Megabyte stood with his recently infected minions, having mounted a flawless capture of the internet gateway command. He stood on the platform leading to the ringed portal device, all his servants saluting him as he stepped to it. Passing through, he expected to arrive at the Supercomputer, where his infection would grant him amazing power. But to his surprise, he passed straight through, remaining in the room.

Just as he yelled in anger, Matrix, Bob, AndrAIa and a small squad of cpu officers emerged from a hidden storage bay from the stolen transport vehicle. Matrix called out, 'You aren't the only one with Trojan horse abilities.'

In the confusing fight that proceeded, Megabyte ran around the room, reforming himself into multiple surrounding binomes to avoid being caught, but Matrix had achieved a target lock on him, which would not disengage. He was eventually surrounded with all his soldiers taken out, and he was alone to face against the Mainframers. Bob told Matrix to 'Do it' and Matrix fired at him. Instead of deleting him, the bullet exploded just before impact, creating a small tear right around him. Bob quickly used the tear to create a portal and Megabyte disappeared.

--

A portal opened in the Mainframe prison cell, and out emerged Megabyte in surprise. Just as he landed, a firewall came up, effectively containing him. He slowly got back to his feet, and looked through the firewall. Several binome guards were outside, ready with their weapons in case of any surprise. Megabyte reached forward, flicking the firewall with a finger, which promptly deflected his finger with an equal force. 'Lovely.'

After a short time, Bob and Matrix entered the observation room to Megabytes new cell, confident that the virus couldn't harm them. Megabyte stood calmly, hands occasionally going from his hips to being folded in his arms. He said to Bob, 'So I imagine the real gateway is in a safe place.'

'The safest.'

'Safer then the achieves…the core room.' Megabyte smiled, 'Why didn't I think of that?'

Bob stood at a console, working the controls, prepping up a scan. 'You must be slipping Megabyte.'

Megabyte snickered slightly in his own confident way, 'Yes I really must congratulate you Bob it was the perfect trap.'

'Thanks, but I can't take the credit.'

'Yes, you were never the brains of the opposition, were you? I assume I can thank the lovely Dot Matrix for my present circumstances.'

Bob replied with a touch of spite, 'Seems fair, after what you tried to do to her.'

'Viruses have to go a long way to satisfy your overactive sense of "fair play."

Matrix stepped in, 'Let's get this over with.'

Megabyte continued on, 'So, what now, deletion?'

Bob shook his head without looking up, 'No, just a scan. I don't believe in deletion.'

'You can't go against your code.'

'Neither can you, that's the problem. It's not your fault, you're programmed to be this way. We just got to work out a way to reprogram you.'

'Then I won't be a virus.' Megabyte mentioned with a questioning look.

'That's the plan.'

'Oh…ah, a fate worse than deletion.' Megabyte grinned and leaned slightly forward, 'And they call _me _the monster?'

Bob looked up in surprise, while he wasn't unhinged, the words clearly stung. He resolutely went back to the console and initiated the scan. Megabyte was surrounded by a ring that passed by several times over him, giving them a full sweep of his coding. The scan concluded and Bob said, 'Scan complete, data download in progress. Now, was that so bad.'

He pulled up a vid-window on the results, looking them over carefully. In shock, he exclaimed, 'This is impossible, there's nothing here, or there.'

Matrix looked at Megabyte, who was leaning back with a very smug grin forming on his face. His anger bubbling out, he said, 'Bob, drop the firewall.'

Bob hesitated, 'I can't he'll...'

Not waiting for a second request, Matrix pulled out his gun and shot out the control console. The firewall dissipated and Matrix rushed in. Megabyte made a partial effort to defend himself, but Matrix pushed forward and gripped him by the neck, slamming his head against the wall.

The crown of Megabytes head began to break down into wireframe from the force, revealing a very weak code structure, and Bob realized what has happened, 'It's an alias! It's not him.'

Matrix continued the attack, 'Where…are…you?' He said, enunciated each word with fury.

Megabyte, or at least this cheap copy, managed a final smile before saying, 'Guess.' Matrix pulled back slightly and slammed the copy into the cell wall, the rest of his body disappearing into particles.

He looked at Bob and they both said, 'The war room.'

Bob immediately activated a communications link to Dot, the first image showed that they were still celebrating Megabytes capture. He addressed urgently. 'Dot, we don't have Megabyte. It was an alias.'

Knowing this knowledge would cause a riot, but with no choice, he tells her quickly, 'He must be in the war room with you. One of you is Megabyte, do you understand, he's tricked us. Get out now!_' _Bob watched despondently as he saw Dot and part of Mouse freeze in terror, and he imagined the entire war room was like that. After a brief moment, suddenly it seemed like the entire web broke lose inside. Panic and screams of fright passed by his view.

Without the need to look or say anything to each other, Bob and Matrix ran outside the cell room together, and moved down the hallway. In mid run, Matrix exclaimed, 'This is bad. Very bad.'

They ran around a corner, the alarm claxons came on, at least letting others know that there is something wrong. Bob said grimly, 'He's more than a Trojan horse. And I don't think he is going to the supercomputer until we're deleted.'

Suddenly Megabyte's voice is heard over the P.O. system wide vid-windows.

'Attention, as you are no doubt aware, I am now in complete control of the Principle Office. You are probable looking forward to one of my erudite speeches about me, Megaframe, the new viral dawn, etcetera, etcetera. But I'm afraid I am going to have to disappoint you, there is no grand scheme here. This is about revenge. Viruses are predatory by design, and it is time for me to follow my function. Prepare yourselves… _for the hunt.' _

The vid-windows closed but they could still hear his last words echo out. Bob looked at Matrix, and brandished Glitch as a gesture of comraderie. Matrix lifted his gun in a similar manner, then said, 'I know your feelings about deletion, but if I get a clear shot…'

Bob sadly nodded, 'I understand. But I still hope it won't come down to that.'

**

* * *

Authors Commentary**

Here is the teaser for the next chapter.

_Joel reaches Lyoko, mistakenly activates a tower and is targeted by Xana for deletion. He has to face against the full force of the Lyoko regulars, leading to understanding his true relationship to their world. Meanwhile, Megabyte has swiftly taken the upper hand in the fight for Mainframe._

A side note, I was hoping to not create an original character, Joel, but I felt it was needed to facilitate the plot. With what I wanted to do with the ReBoot story all of the main characters are busy with other things right now. Plus including Joel allows more breathing room. And as another note, this chapter was really difficult to write and took a long time because it had so much dialogue. Every chapter after this one should be much smoother.


	3. Lockdown

**Authors Commentary **

This is where everything kicks up a notch. It should be fun.

Also, there is a complicated story point from Reboot that I deliberately avoided in the last chapter. I'm trying to have this at least make sense to non-fanatic Reboot fans. Dot, Matrix, and Enzo's father, Welman, was thought to be killed before the series began. In actuality, he was changed into a null, a primitive slug creature. Because the experiment resulted in the creation of Megabyte and Hexadecimal, Megabyte kept Welman as a pet calling him 'Nibbles.' In the fourth season, Welman was received the ability to communicate with the cast, and given a humanoid exo-suit so he had the same mobility as everyone else. In the last episode of the series, partially described in the previous chapter, Megabyte infected the exo-suit and was in control of it.

Like I said, complicated story point. But at least I gave you a warning and my conscience is clear.

Again, thanks to my brother for proofreading this.

* * *

Devastation- Code Lyoko Rebooted 

Chapter 2: Lockdown

The war room had swiftly been redone to match Megabytes' aesthetic preference. Much of the room now had a soft blue glow, with occasional specks of neon green pouring in from energy circuits. Megabyte had wasted no time infecting the control systems, giving him power over the surface level and lower functions the war room controlled.

Megabyte moved over to the captive Enzo, being held in place by his fathers' infected exo-suit. Welman was trapped in the head dome, and despite the lack of a distinctive face, you could tell the concern he had for Enzo. Megabyte deliberately walked in a methodical manner, he knew Enzo was scared of him, and prolonging anything would only increase the boys fear. He knelt in front of him, smiling with a sense of victory. 'Well, boy. Your older version proved to be quite the nuisance to my plans.' He took hold of Enzo's icon. 'Right now you wouldn't be much of an ally, but your use as a pawn is immeasurable.' He toyed with the icon for a moment, before stepping away. Looking to the exo-suit, he commanded, 'Take him to the read-only room.'

The exo-suit left with Enzo held firmly, followed by a small squad of three newly infected war room personnel.

From the back of the room, a weakened Phong managed to sneak to a console, and performed a voice command, 'Voice authorization, Control, Tab, F4 security protocol.' He could barely get that finished when Megabytes minions grabbed him under each arm and dragged him away. Megabyte stopped what he was doing and moved to see what Phong had done.

He looked over the console and remarked mildly amused, 'Interesting, an internal security block. This will keep me from accessing the archives and turns off all external defenses. It's like you had this exact scenario prepared for. You really do have a lot of time on your hands.'

The virus stepped away from the console and picked Phong up from his neck, holding him face to face. 'Do you think this will be of any use you outdated sprite? I have no desire to leave this system, only the complete and total devastation of everyone here.'

Phong weakly glared at him, and in his own defiant way said, 'I once told you that I would fight you to the end, virus. _And I am still processing_. Delete me if you will, but don't think that Mainframe is an isolated system. We have powerful friends.'

Megabyte tossed Phong to the side, directing a binome to guard him. Without hesitation, Megabyte commanded an additional four soldiers to step forward, 'I have reinforcements in the prison block 502. I have already released them remotely, you will lead them to the armory.' One soldier in a very monotone voice saluted and said, 'Yes, my lord.' The soldiers readied their weapons and proceeded out from the war room. Megabyte was careful to leave a few additional guards around him, just for insurance.

Returning to face the tired and restrained Phong, he coolly said, 'As for your faith in your friends, we will see how powerful the Guardian Collective is.' Then he reached for a command console and began a different infection directed towards the modem hardware. This infection manifested as a smoky black color, and as the modem was infected, the red eye of Xana appeared on the screen. Suddenly anything running on the systems power began to strobe with quick drops in power.

--

Mouse and AndrAIa ran down the cooridor, almost running into Dot as she came from a junction. Hack and Slash were standing on opposite sides of her, acting as dutiful bodyguards. The first thing that came from Dot was, 'Where's Enzo?'

Mouse said in her sugary southern accent, 'Honey, we couldn't get to him. Last I saw, your Dad was trying to get him out of there. I'm pretty sure Phong is still inside.'

Suddenly the hallway began to strobe in a momentary power loss, but returned to normal. They all recognized this wasn't good, but didn't know what it was. AndrAIa suddenly perked up and extended her trident. She poised herself towards one hallway direction and said softly, 'I hear voices that way. They sound viral. With Megabyte in control we need to get to a safe house.'

Dot had her face cradled by the fingers of her hand, deep in thought. She said to herself, 'Megabyte read our actions perfectly, and I was too distracted from the last few seconds to anticipate it…'

Not breaking step, Mouse interrupted her, 'Listen, you are goin' to think 'I should have, could have, or would have,' but we need you here and now.'

Hack and Slash were not helping her thought process from their continually random dialogue. 'Megabyte has the war room.' 'Megabyte could _be _the war room.' 'No he can't, the war room is a _room.' _'How could you know that? You must be working for Megabyte. You could _be Megabyte!_' 'No I couldn't be…or could I?' Hack started to panic over the sheer uncertainty of the situation.

Dot got in their faces. 'Okay, I told you both to stop it.' Hack and Slash froze, then straightened up. Dot slowly got back her rhythm and issued out commands. 'I have an emergency bunker in G-Prime. It has an autonomous communications system so we can organize forces. Bob and Matrix can handle themselves, and if they stayed together Megabyte could not be one of them. We need to be very careful around Phong, I'd image Megabyte would use that appearance to his advantage. Enzo…' She visibly grimaced at the thought of what could happen to her little brother.

'We'll just have to hope the user is kind today.'

* * *

Emergence 

The Expedition is on a flat spot of the structure, with Joel outside with the helmet latched on, just entering the nearest hallway. The spotlights on his helmet provide enough light to reveal the darkened areas.

He came across a large tablet, covered in binary, and read it to himself, 'There will rise three beings descended from Asgard. One shall shape reality. One will destroy it. One can rise to join the Gods. Of the first, it shall fight with the second, but they both will bring about the beginnings of Ragnarok, the end of civilization. The third will arm himself with the power of Asgard, but only the Sentinels can prevent Ragnarok.' He cocks his head to one side, puzzled by the language. 'Lyoko?'

He moved down the hallway, looking toward the darker areas to make sure he doesn't miss anything. He entered the primary chamber, and walked up to the pyramid in the center. None of the symbols he had seen before, but the Lyoko symbol was in the center. He pressed the different symbols, but nothing reacted until he pressed the center symbol. The room changed, opening a hallway from the chamber to the outside.

Joel reached for his belt and unlatched a few metal rods. By twisting different components, they released three prongs for which they could stand on their own. He positioned them in a triangular pattern around the relic, then activated them. They glowed, then produced a white mini-firewall with Joel inside. The devices also vented the corrosive atmosphere, so inside it was as safe as the net. Joel removed his helmet and set it on the floor, taking a deep breath after getting rid of the muggy helmet. He opened a box and removed Vostro. Vostro started talking to him, his center gear whirling around in the keytool language. Joel nodded, 'Yes, this is dangerous.' Vostro made another remark that made Joel shake his head. 'You're paranoid. Don't worry, I've taken every precaution.'

Holding Vostro to the relic, Joel said, 'Vostro, Uplink.'

Vostro hovered in the air, then rearranged its shape, the center gear expanding to provide a screen for Joel. Its body changed and a prong in the form of a satellite pointed at the relic, then emitted an energy wave to it. Vostro's screen revealed a box, divided into 26 cubes with different symbols on them, and began decoding it by changing around the pattern until all symbols were matched up. Joel said, 'Okay, activate the function.' Vostro activated the console and the wall with the ringed symbol started to open up. From behind the wall, fanning prongs expand into the room, creating a half-diamond shape between each prong.

The room started shaking, and an energy wave started moving slowly through the gap in the wall. A large bubble of raw energy pushed through the room, colliding with the firewall units and quickly brought them down, exposing the area to the web atmosphere.

It came in at a rush, and Joel was momentarily blinded by the change in pressure. He moved to cover his face with his arm, and Vostro reacted immediately. It reconfigured into its standard form and attached itself to Joel's arm. It emitted a particle field to protect him, then it fired off a line to the ship on the outside, pulling him over to it like a motor wench. Joel did the rest as he got into the ship and into a safe environment.

Joel was a little shaken from what just happened. Then he got to his feet, sat in the pilot seat and Vostro made a remark his way. He replied, 'Fine, I'll give you that one.'

The prongs were pulsating, the wave was expanding out and dissipating soon after.

Joel put Vostro back on his docking station and read the information he was getting from the scan. 'Okay, we have a firewall that doesn't behave like a firewall, and a very strange gateway command.' Vostro talks to him again. 'You say this place is a hub? That means it goes two ways.'

He took a moment to think, then rubbed his hands together, 'I'm not going back to Turbo with just this. Vostro, get ready for a quick H.T.T.P. change.' Joel leaned forward on the controls and the ship slowly moved into the energy field, it just barely being small enough to get there. The energy grabbed hold of the Expedition and yanked it in, the only trace left being a series of glowing circuitry patterns.

--

On an identical structure, the expedition emerged at high velocities and slammed into a curving wall. Joel reversed his engines and managed to slow down as he exited the monolith. Coming to a stop, he looked out the window of the expedition. He was in the digital sea, with the various structures off in the distance. In amazement, he said, 'Vostro…I think we're in a completely different network…'

--

Lunch was just starting and Yumi joined with everyone else at their table in the cafeteria. They began to eat their food and you could hear the conversation around the cafeteria about the three-day weekend and the plans everyone have for it. Jeremie leaned into the group, 'Okay, the last class ends at four o'clock, so we should plan on meeting at the factory at four-thirty. That'll give us a few hours to search the network and hopefully get some information on what Xana is planning on doing with the Replikas.'

Odd sighed a little, 'Hey, maybe Aelita and Yumi would like to join us for another night of games and movies.'

Ulrich laughed lightly, 'We passed out last night from junk food and you're ready to go another round?'

Odd shrugged, 'Hey, I make the most of these things. Normally I wouldn't be so pushy but I really like these special days and I don't want to miss it.'

Aelita said with a bit of a giggle, 'Maybe we'll get lucky and Xana will attack, forcing a return to the past. That way you can get this day one more time.'

'Now you're just being sarcastic.' Odd paused for a second, considering her idea. 'Although…'

--

The Expedition emerged from another hub from within the digital sea. Joel had been tracking an energy wake belonging to another ship. Before him was the gate to Lyoko. 'Looks like this is a port access. The trail leads here, I hope I find someone.' He activated a remote link-up with the gateway, using the decoding program Vostro created with the monolith. After a moment, the seal unlocked itself and the gateway opened. He moved the ship inside, and the gateway closed behind him.

After entering the gate, the Expedition was riding through a turbulent sea of data. The ship pushed forward, eventually breaking through the surface and rising toward the system. The Expedition rose over the system, giving Joel his first look at this place. He came down in the ice sector, landing gently.

'Vostro, system scan. Is it safe to leave the ship?' Vostro displayed the environment status and Joel nodded, 'I'm not one to throw out conspiracy theories, but I think that this place may hold the answers to Megabytes viral upgrade.'

In short order Joel made his first steps out onto the sector. He said, 'I don't understand. The energy readings from this place are greater than the Supercomputer, but where are the buildings, the software, the programs, the people? Where is the energy going to?'

* * *

The Lockdown 

Bob and Matrix dropped low into a service tunnel, power cables and other equipment were all around them. They turned a corner, then stopped and remained quiet when they could hear voices up high. Faintly it sounded like some soldiers making a full patrol of the main hallways. Bob looked at Matrix, 'I'm not sure how we can regain the war room without a direct attack. The room is designed to not have any alternate entrances, only a one-way emergency escape hatch.'

Matrix readied his gun, 'We could just portal in.'

'I'd like to do that, but when we are ready. I'm not sure we could overpower Megabytes hold on the room with just us two. Odds are he is continuing to infect others and expand his forces.'

'What would it take to go up and sneak in through the escape hatch?'

'There are several layers of barriers before you even get to the elevator. By the time you bypass all of them, half a cycle would be gone. You would need luck and a prayer.'

Matrix sighed, 'We need to rally anyone who escaped the war room takeover, gather all the allies we have left. I don't plan on leaving the P.O. with Megabyte in control.'

Bob lowered his head in thought, 'Megabyte took vid-window communication off-line as soon as he had the chance.' He held up Glitch, 'Glitch, system scan, try to locate Dot or anyone else.' Glitch changed shape to appear as a satellite dish, rotating around several times before returning to the previous form. His screen displayed the results, giving an approximation of their location several levels down. Bob said to Matrix, 'I think this we can portal to.'

Matrix took aim at a nearby crate and fired, destroying it and creating a small tear. Bob called out the command, 'Glitch, portal.' Glitch emitted a golden beam of energy that wrapped around the tear and stabilized it into a portal. This portal was not a normal appearance, black smoke surrounded it. The two looked at each other, knowing it was unusual. Bob hesitantly shrugged and stepped to the portal, but instead of being absorbed into it he hit a solid surface and bounced back. Re-examining it, he put his hands on it and pushed, which did nothing. After a moment the energy ran out and the portal disappeared.

Matrix said, 'What happened?'

'I don't know. I've never heard of anything like it. Could Megabyte be behind this?'

Matrix came to a realization, 'If we can't use the portals, does that mean we can't call in reinforcements?'

'I don't like where this is going.' Bob paused for a moment to prepare for their next step. 'We know they are together, and I trust that they'll take care of themselves. What we need to do is counter Megabytes movements.' Bob moved down the hallway to another hatch. 'We need to get to the core room.'

--

Dot lead the way through a series of underground pathways, having already used them several times before. She looked to Mouse, 'I really hoped I would never have to abandon the Principle Office again.'

AndrAIa kept up the rear of their group. 'Anyone know what the power drop was? It seemed like a file installation, but it only lasted a nano.'

They came to a hatch and Mouse helped to open it. 'It could be a result of a direct infection of the power relays. But that doesn't make any sense, it doesn't help him in any way and it is the easiest thing to anti-virus.' As the hatch opened and they were exposed to the outside, they all knew something was different. The normally peaceful blue sky with white clouds was now an angry apocalyptic red with dark clouds.

Dot looked at it with amazement, 'This can only be done with a file installation, but if Megabyte was involved it would have his viral colors. I think there might be another party helping him.' She led the way to a nearby warehouse and they all situated themselves around the command terminals.

Mouse quickly began working on gaining access to the War Room controls remotely. Once she did everything on her console began giving off static and displayed a completely foreign code, resembling similar markings Joel found at the monolith in the web. Frustrated, Mouse looked at Dot and said, 'This is nothing like I've seen before. I don't even know where to begin to hack through it. I think you're right about that third party. And I think it would explain how Megabyte got the drop on us.'

Cynically, Dot remarked, 'Maybe I have an excuse for not being ready for him.' She opened up several vid-windows. 'I'm calling in the Guardians.' Dialing up the correct bandwidth, the vid-windows displayed nothing but static. Confused, Dot continued to refine the bandwidth, with everything remaining the same. She collapsed back into her chair, exhausted. 'Megabyte did something. I don't know what, or how, but we have a total communications lockdown.'

* * *

Other Discoveries 

Joel had entered the only structure he could find, one of the towers. He found the control console at the top platform and Vostro had linked up with it. The tower powered up, and outside it began glowing a soft blue color.

Vostro revealed the results of another scan, and Joel dropped his head in frustration, 'This is another hub? How many of these things are we going to come across? Where does it lead to?' Vostro talks again and the first thing in Joel's vocabulary he could come up with as a response was, 'Huh?' The tower seemed to dim slightly as though there was a power loss, then returned to normal. Joel took notice of this and looked around. 'That looked like a file installation. Maybe this place isn't abandoned. Vostro, return.' Vostro reattached to Joels arm and he made his way to the lower platform. He exited out of the tower and immediately came across three krabs that recently materialized. Stopping completely and standing straight, he took in the creatures height for a moment, unsure if they were dangerous or not. The krabs turned and looked at him, and then charged up their energy cannons and fired.

The first blast hit him in the shoulder, but the web armor he was wearing took most of the blast, though still damaged. He was knocked back to the ground, and immediately rolled to the side and got back up. The krabs continued to fire at him and he took off running, trying to go for safety. He threw out his zipboard and jumped on, getting the advantage in speed. He flew up high to go over the nearest ridge, trying to get some cover. A shot impacted the bottom of his zipboard, destroying it and he fell back to the surface. Using Vostro, he had an energy rod protrude out and he caught himself between two rock formations. Landing on the ground, he hid himself and looked out to see the krabs coming his way.

--

Jeremie had just gotten back to his dorm room when his laptop went off, alerting him to activity on Lyoko. He made a quick list of phone calls, letting them know to meet at the factory.

Within a few minutes everyone had assembled, and Odd cynically remarked, 'Of course Xana would force us to come when we were already planning on being here. Maybe I'll get that day back.'

Jeremie settled into place at the console, 'Something is different here guys, I don't like it so be careful.'

Yumi asked, 'What it is?'

'I'm detecting Krabs, and we have an activated tower, but it isn't doing anything. It's just left on.'

Ulrich said, 'Let's take care of it.' They all mobilized and quickly virtualized into the ice sector landing in an open field. The krabs were on the other side of the field. As they approached the creatures, three megatanks rolled out onto the field, blocking their path.

Ulrich pulled out his katanas, 'Let's go to work.' Yumi withdrew her weapons as well and they began to head out, but were stopped by Aelita. 'Do you see that?' She said pointing to the rock ridge in the distance. Krabs were lurking around the ridge, behaving as though they were looking for something and were completely ignoring them. 'Jeremie, what are they are looking for?'

Jeremie replied with a shrug. 'There is nothing there.'

Ulrich moved up a few steps, 'I'll see what I can find. Take care of the others.' He pushed forward into a run, then entered his supersprint, leaving a yellow blur behind him. The megatanks opened up from their ball position, and fired out their massive shock blasts. Ulrich leapt forward, then fell into a roll to avoid the blast, then maneuvered around them, not going for a kill.

--

Joel moved deliberately around the crags in the formation. Once he found a spot that he felt safe hiding in, he sat down for a moment. 'Vostro, system scan.' Vostro presented Joel an updated scan, and he noticed some power levels were slightly lower than before. 'Well, obviously something changed. It's far from maxing out the power this system is holding, but why are they attacking me.' He looked out at all angles, then stepped out heading towards the outside of the formation. 'The only chance I have is to get back to my ship.'

He slid down a steep angle, landing on flat ground that led to open space. As he rounded a corner, he nearly ran right into Ulrich, who was also caught by surprise. In reflex, Ulrich poised his sword in Joel's direction, while Joel, also in reflex, created an energy shield with Vostro. He backhanded Ulrich with it and he collapsed to the ground, dumbfounded as to what just happened.

Joel stepped away, then turned and ran from Ulrich, incidentally heading deeper into the ridge. Ulrich murmured, 'Who is that?' He stood up and brushed himself off, still holding one katana. 'Jeremie, I found the thing the krabs are looking for and he just attacked me.'

Jeremie nervously adjusted his headset, 'He? It's another person?'

'Well, he had like bluish-green skin, but it is a person, not a creature.'

Jeremie searches in detail over the entire ice sector. He then finds a faint trace of something. He analyzes the details for a moment before saying mostly to himself, 'There is a vessel nearby. Does that mean he is from another supercomputer that can virtualize people?'

Ulrich couldn't follow Jeremie's thought process, 'So wait… who is he again?'

'I…don't know. I'm just as clueless as you are. The scanners aren't registering him, but from the ship I'm guessing he isn't from Lyoko.'

'Ya think. Shouldn't you know these things?'

'Sorry, I'm a genius, not a magic-8 ball.' Jeremie shrugged his shoulders, 'He is an anomaly, so treat him like one.'

Ulrich realized that his mystery person was getting further away, and started moving forward in a run. 'So what's the plan of action?'

Jeremie pauses for a minute, racking his mind for an idea. 'Confront him and contain him.'

Ulrich mumbled sarcastically, 'Easier said than done.'

--

Out in the field, Odd ran towards a megatank, side stepping their sweeping blasts. He fired a volley of laser arrows at them, one made contact and destroyed the megatank. Odd barely had time to exclaim, 'Yes!' in victory before another megatank's blast came uncomfortably close to taking out his head. Odd cradled his head, then said, 'Can't lose it now.'

Jeremie's voice came on, 'Aelita, Xana has taken control of the nearby tower. You have a clear path, get to it and everyone else head to the ridge to deal with William.'

--

Joel slid down a steep rock edge, landing on the ground and then moved forward. 'Okay, that sprite looked like a kid, but he was about to attack me.' He came to a point where he could look down at a krab that didn't know he was there. Also seeing his ship in the distance, he knew he had to punch through them. Taking a moment to think, he then jumped onto the back of the krab, who immediately started bucking around to throw off its rider. Joel knelt down, held onto the outer shell with one hand and called out the command, 'Vostro, splicer.' Vostro protracted a needle device into the back of the krab, and for a moment, Joel was actually linked up with the krab and could control it. The krab became docile, but then started to move where Joel wanted to take it.

He maneuvered it towards another krab and fired at it, destroying the creature. Suddenly the symbol of the creatures back started glowing black with a red aura, and Vostro was having a hard time keeping the link. Soon red energy pushed them away, severing the link and Joel landed hard on the ground.

The krab was still glowing black, like it was trying to reboot. Joel dusted himself off and got up, when a noise caught his attention. It sounded like the rumbling of rocks, but it coincided with a black smoke line snaking his direction. Joel backed away slightly but the smoke slithered right past him, and as he turned to follow, he was hit in the face with the hilt of William's sword.

Joel fell to the ground in a daze, but there was little time for him to react as William tried to skewer him to the ground. 'Vostro, Energy Dome.' A protective barrier enveloped Joel and the impact of Williams stab glanced off. Not deterred, William returned his momentum and repeatedly made strikes against the dome, slowly weakening it. This did give Joel time to think, and he realized that he was older and taller than his assailant. Releasing the dome, he step to the side of a swing and moved in closer, taking hold of the sword by the hilt. Twisting it, he tried to dislodge it from Williams grip, but he held on firmly. Thinking that he could overpower William, instead this caught him off guard and they struggled for control of the sword until he was simply flung away.

Joel slammed hard into a ridge and his vision blurred from the impact. Getting back to his feet, he saw William lunge at him, but everything became disjointed as Ulrich tackled him from the side. This saved him from William's blow but they both went off a ridge and slid down to the base, which now exposed them to the open field. Joel forced himself back to his feet, again face to face with Ulrich. He backed away and got into a defensive stance, expecting another person to fight. Ulrich instead intercepted a descending William and they exchanged attacks.

Joel was surprised, but he was even more confused. 'I thought that everything in this system was trying to delete me.' He backed away as William and Ulrich locked weapons in a standoff. He turned around and came face to face with Odd. At the same time, they both asked, 'Who are you?' Joel took a step away, unsure of which side Odd was on. From behind Odd, Yumi ran to them and threw her fan just over their heads, surprising Joel but he realized that it was aimed at the krab behind him that had just rebooted. The krab ducked under the fan, then opened fire, forcing Odd, Yumi and Joel to scatter.

Yumi got behind a rock, but noticed that the krab wasn't aiming for her or Odd, but going after Joel. She looked at the fight that was progressing between William and Ulrich, Ulrich was bounding from one ledge to another and William was following suit. She moved out from her spot to help Ulrich, but heard Jeremie yell, 'Watch out Yumi!' She stopped and a megatank blast went by just past her face, close enough to make her hair move from the wind.

Odd made a move against the tank to distract it from Yumi, firing a few arrows that ricocheted off its armor. The tank moved to face Odd, then it flipped on its side. They had seen this before and Odd prepared to jump over the blast. To his surprise, the tank fired and twisted itself in the air, creating an energy wave shaped like a corkscrew. Odd jumped anyway, the blast clipped him on the left leg, spinning him wildly in the air. Somehow making sense of his bearing, Odd fired off a single shot before he landed harshly, which hit the tank in its eye, destroying it.

He looked at Yumi, hurt but okay. He gave her a smile and a thumbs-up but was suddenly devirtualized by a surprise shot from the third krab. He rematerialized in the chamber, a little peeved.

Yumi darted away, trying to get a bearing on the situation. 'Jeremie, what do we have left and where is our mystery guest?'

From his screen Jeremie gave her an overview of the remaining creatures. 'William and two krabs left. I can't see the person you're talking about, but one of the krabs is behind a ridge to your left. If he is anywhere, he'd be there. Aelita is almost to the tower.'

Joel ran for his life as the krab chased him along the outside of the ridge. He dashed to the side as another shot grazed past, but he took the turn too sharply and tripped. The krab came up to him and tried to stab him with its leg, but he rolled to the side as the impact threw dust into the air. He scrambled around, trying to get away and managed to get out from underneath it. Then he heard a buzzing sound and a fan sliced across the top of the krab. Light poured out from the cut and it stumbled around for a moment before it exploded. Off in the distance, he saw Yumi's fan return to her. But he could hear the sound of a swordfight even closer, and Ulrich was kicked off the ledge by William, landing not far from him in the other direction.

Joel watched as William made a leap from the top at Ulrich, then realized who he should help. 'Vostro, energy rings.' Vostro emitted protective rings that surrounded Ulrich. William was very surprised when his attack was not only interrupted, but the rings rebounded the attack and he was flung off ungracefully. William hit a rock, but quickly got back to his feet. Looking at Joel with hatred, he charged up his sword to swing out an energy blast, and Joel backed away in anticipation and a little fear, activating a personal shield from Vostro. William pulled back to swing when suddenly Ulrich surprised him and stabbed him from behind. William disappeared in an outline of smoke.

Yumi saw the approach of the last krab and she made a run towards it. The krab opened fire and Yumi slid forward, letting the ice continue her momentum, though coming dangerous close to the edge of the land. She released her fan, making a nearly perfect arc, but the krab surprised her by shooting it out of the air. She returned to a mid run, now down a fan. The krab fired a shot which impacted Yumi in the shoulder, and combined with her in mid-run, flipped her harshly to one side. She slid and came to the edge, falling off but getting a modest grip on the corner to keep herself up for a short time.

Ulrich and Joel looked at each other, with Joel making the first comment, 'We're even, but wasn't that a little cold? Deleting him like that.' Ulrich was a little confused at the comment. 'I'm guessing you don't know anything about us, do you?'

Jeremie called out to Ulrich, 'Yumi's in trouble, get to the ridge now!'

Ulrich perked up and ran to her aid. Joel was surprised by the sudden sprint. He followed anyway, but couldn't keep up with Ulrich's speed. Yumi's grip failed her and she began to fall, but Ulrich jumped off the edge and simultaneously grabbed her hand and imbedded his katana into the cliff face, keeping them from falling but also not allowing them to go anywhere. The krab approached them and opened fire, coming very close.

Not far away, surprising the krab from behind a rock, Joel called out the command, 'Nyoi'bo, and Vostro morphed into an extremely long staff, which stretched the distance between him and the other side of the krab. He slid the staff between the legs of the creature and then levered Vostro against the large rock, giving him the torque to slide two of the krabs legs off the ledge. The weight balance shifted and the krab hopelessly fell off the edge and towards the digital sea.

He quickly made his way to Ulrich and Yumi and reached down, extending his hand. Joel dug his fingers into the ground and slowly managed to bring Ulrich's hand to the ledge, and Ulrich pulled Yumi to the ledge as well. Within moments, they were all on solid footing. Off in the distance, the tower was deactivated by Aelita and the red glow was gone. Yumi and Ulrich stood up, shaking their heads to get their thought process working again.

Joel, looking beat up in his horribly damaged armor, came forward and addressed them, 'Now for the formalities. I am Guardian 627, state your name and function.'

Ulrich and Yumi looked confused by his statement. Yumi eventually spoke out, 'Uh, my name is Yumi and this is Ulrich. As far as our…function…we have no idea what you're talking about.' She shrugged her shoulders.

Joel paused for a moment to try a restructure his words, 'My name is Joel. My format: Guardian, to mend and defend. I come from the net, an area of cyberspace.

Jeremie had uploaded their viewpoints to a window on his screen, and could finally see who they were dealing with. 'I've never seen anything like this. Teal skin, red armor, what is that on his arm?'

Ulrich said to Jeremie, 'He seems to be an artificial intelligence, not a virtualized person. That thing on his arm has like, a million and one uses.'

A looked of confusion came from Joel, 'Um, who are you talking to?'

Yumi and Ulrich glanced at each other, and Yumi said, 'I guess you can't hear him unless you have a Lyoko interface. Jeremie is the guy at the controls of Lyoko.' This explanation resulted in a very blank and confused stare from Joel. Trying to restructure her words, she said while pointing randomly around her, 'This world is called Lyoko. It is created by a supercomputer that is managed and used by Jeremie.'

Joel's look of confusion remained, but he slowly began thinking about what she said. After a moment, he came to an idea of what they were telling him, and the look of confusion became replaced by a look of absolute astonishment, and even a little bit of horror.

His breathing began to increase, and he said with nervousness, 'Are you telling me…Jeremie is a user?!'

**Authors Commentary **

If you want a teaser for the next chapter, here it is.

_With a friendship started between the Lyoko group and Joel, they realize that Xana has infiltrated the net Joel is from. They decide to take a risk and travel to Mainframe, where they can capture the one being they know Xana has been working with, Megabyte. In Mainframe, Megabyte has expanded his forces, and began his 'hunt.' Everyone must tread lightly, while paranoia spreads. _


	4. The New Horizon

**Authors Commentary**

Again, ReBoot info, they speak in a different time scale. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out in the story. The Reboot story heads off to roughly the next day, and they were hiding from Megabyte the whole time, that way it catches up to the Code Lyoko timeline.

Thanks again to my brother for the proofreading.

* * *

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 3: A New Horizon

Joel was walking with Ulrich and Yumi to a tower. Aelita had exited and was waiting outside for them. Ulrich introduced Joel to Aelita. She said with a smile, 'So you're the one who's been giving us so much trouble.'

Joel was still a little stunned from what he was learning about Jeremie and the rest of the team. 'So, all of you are users, given digital form. What is your format when you're not on Lyoko...wait, do you even have a format?'

Yumi replied, 'Well, we don't have the digital properties that you have. I guess the best explanation is that we're organic when we're not on Lyoko.'

This didn't help Joel at all, 'Organic?'

Ulrich tried to clarify, 'Organic is…well… we have biological needs like lungs, a heart, a stomach. Those things keep us alive.'

Joel was still at a loss. 'I…it sounds similar to source code but I don't understand.'

Odd walked up behind Jeremie and looked at his screen, which had Joel from the perspective of Ulrich. 'Well yeah, that's the guy. But why can't you see him on the scanners?'

With a little annoyance Jeremie responded, 'I don't know Odd, that's what we're trying to figure out.'

They arrived at the base of the tower, and they all walk inside. Aelita called out to Jeremie, 'Okay, see if you can get a scan of him.'

Jeremie amped up the more powerful tower sensors to their maximum, which should let him see anything in its most basic form. Jeremie looked it over, 'I'm still getting nothing.'

Yumi nodded to Jeremies' comment, 'So Joel, you don't know why Lyoko can't recognize you? Is there anything that might be blocking it?'

Joel shrugged, 'I don't know.' He looks himself over, then realized something, 'Wait.' He unlatched a panel in his damaged armor, revealing his black and gold Guardian icon. He double-clicked it and his web armor phased away as the traditional blue Guardian uniform is replaced.

Jeremie went wild as the sensors do a full sweep of now revealed Joel. 'Guys, this is incredible. From what I'm seeing, he is a security program, but the code is different than any traditional anti-virus.' He pulled up a screen showing the scanned coding. Jeremie then focused a frame and zoomed in to the supercomputers maximum ability. Within the binary there was thousands of sub-code numbers. Jeremie could only say, 'Wow!'

Joel rolled his shoulders, stretching out after wearing that heavy armor. 'That armor was designed to protect me from the data corruptive nature of the web. It must have been good enough to insulate against your sensors.'

Jeremie was continually scanning over Joel, his curiosity was only growing. 'You said you come from the Net, are there more like you?' He waited a moment, then remembered Joel couldn't hear him. 'Ulrich, ask him if there are more like him. I'm going to try and redirect my voice into the tower.'

Ulrich shrugged, 'It figures Jeremie would be into all this.' He looked at Joel, 'Are there more like you? How big is the net you come from?'

Joel said, 'There are millions of systems, with thousands of people in every one. I am from the Supercomputer.'

Jeremie rubbed his forehead, amazed at what he was learning, 'It's an entire civilization.' He worked over the controls and finally made the needed changes and patched in his voice to the tower. 'Joel, can you hear me?'

Joel freaked out a bit and backed away. With a scared look, he tentatively asked, 'Who was that!?' He almost fell off the edge of the platform, but Ulrich grabbed him back. He looked at Ulrich, 'Is that the user?'

Ulrich said to Jeremie, 'I think you got his attention.' He held his hands up to Joel, 'It's okay. Yes, it is Jeremie.'

Once Joel relaxed a little he carried an intensive look, 'Many where I come from have wondered what they would ask the user if they ever met them. The only thing I can think of is…why do you send the games?'

Jeremies' brow furrowed, 'Games? What do you mean?'

'Uh…' Joel tried to explain, 'We receive games that fall from the sky and cover part of the system, forcing anyone inside to fight against the user…err…you.'

Jeremie and Odd exchanged looks, then Odd realized what he was talking about. He snagged the headset from Jeremie and bumped him to the side as he got in front of the monitor. 'Hey…Joel…this is Odd, the purple cat you saw in Lyoko.' He took a deep breath. 'I never thought you would play the games we load onto the internet. To answer your question we play the games for fun. Sometimes it's simply for bragging rights, or to improve hand-eye coordination. I am a Commandant on Soldiers of Fortune. You ever play that one?'

Joel froze in place, a look of absolute horror on his face. After a moment he looked at Ulrich and with his voice trembling a little from terror, he replied, '…my people live in fear of the games every second.'

* * *

Cloak and Dagger

Matrix grunted as he pulled down on the handle to a maintenance door. Just as he managed to get it partially open, the hinge slammed it back shut. He painfully shook his hands from the strain. Bob dropped his head. 'Why did they have to make these things so difficult?'

'You know Phong, he prepares for every situation. I'm thinking he activated a background processing security system. These doors are meant to be difficult in this situation so high risk areas are protected. Let me try again.' Matrix grabbed hold of the door and braced himself, pulling just a little, before giving it his full strength. The hinge groaned, then the door opened slightly, until you could just barely see through to the other side.

Bob said, 'My turn. Glitch, hydraulic lift.' Glitch reformed itself into a narrow diamond shape, with Bob placing it in the crack in the door. Taking hold of a lever, he pumped Glitch so that the shape expanded, forcing the door to open more. Matrix let go when he saw that Glitch had it taken care of. Once it had opened enough for them to get through, they continued on down the other side, with the door slamming shut once Glitch was taken out.

They found an access shaft and began climbing down it; after reaching a platform they saw an open tube going down. They slid down the tube and into the auxiliary core control chamber. There were four auxiliary control chambers surrounding the main control platform.

Bob said, 'The war room is the only place with the operating software for the core power. We can override it here manually.'

Matrix asked, 'Do you have the programming for that?'

Bob said with a grim expression, 'I can fake it.' He glanced at Matrix with a serious look, but neither could keep it straight and they both started laughing, breaking the tension somewhat.

'So it's back to the "Fly by the seat of your pants" tactic.'

With a shrug, Bob said, 'I go with what works.' He worked at the panel covering the controls specific for this chamber. 'If we take things slowly, read all the labels carefully we should figure out how to shut down power to the war room and any other areas we want.' He opened up the panel, which revealed thousands of switches, levers, valves and buttons.

With a sarcastic tone Matrix said, 'Great! Alphanumeric!'

--

Outside Dot's Diner a patrol of viral officers came by, who stop a group of civilians and took them captive. A child was separated from her parents as they were placed in a containment chamber, and the child was taken away to another location.

Nearby, AndrAIa was observing everything that was going on. Her fist clenched tightly, fighting off the urge to attack the transport herself, but she knew it was suicide. She set up a small surveillance camera to observe this area, double checking the exact area it could see, then looked at her watch and disappeared into the shadows.

Taking all the back alleys, she came down along a power conduit and waited for a moment. Then a military binome came out to meet her. She greeted him. 'Hey Johnny, what is the situation in Wall Street?'

He spoke back with a heavy mid-western accent. 'Well Miss AndrAIa, the people are scared. The virals have implemented martial law and anyone found outside their home are taken away.'

AndrAIa said with a heavy tone, 'Same with Baudway.'

Johnny added, 'Megabyte has placed firewalls over the financial areas, locked down all sources of credit. That stinkin' virus is only here a full second and he has Mainframe under his control.'

'Don't worry, Dot owns most of Mainframe, Megabyte can't lock out all her resources. He's underestimated her before, he'll do it again.' She positioned herself to leave, 'Report back at 1500 at recon point delta.' As she turned to leave Johnny lightly touched her arm, pulling her back.

'Miss AndrAIa, I'm just an old-fashioned cowboy. I'm not one for sneaking around. But I trust Miss Matrix and I want you to know that when you're ready to taken down that virus trash; I'll be on the front line beside you.'

AndrAIa nodded, 'We're all grateful. I know Dot trusts you to get the hard things done.'

'I appreciate that.'

They separated from each other and went into the back alleys. After some time AndrAIa got back to the bunker in G-Prime. Dot was organizing all the teams setting up the cameras around Mainframe. They had located a few squadrons of their own military who had not been infected and Dot had several teams making various supply runs. Mouse was manning the security cameras and setting them up, keeping track of the viral troops movement. Dot saw AndrAIa enter and moved to her.

'What news do you have AndrAIa?'

'I'm guessing Megabyte has about two-hundred infected soldiers out on the streets. With his control of the Principle Office, he can mobilize his troops much faster then we can mobilize our forces. He is trying to shut off all finances.'

Dot nodded. 'Let him try, at the least he'll waste time attempting to.' She exhaled, looking like she could use some sleep. 'Any word about Bob and Matrix? Phong? Enzo?'

AndrAIa shook her head for each one. 'Our allies are growing thin, but the people of Mainframe are willing to line up behind us.'

'I can't call upon civilians. We'll handle this with who we have.'

AndrAIa said, 'The CPU forces are heavily compromised. Every nano Megabyte infects a few more. We'll be needing more numbers.'

Dot slammed her organizer down on the table. The entire room grew silent. Dot said with restraint, 'I will not bring innocents into this fight. If you haven't figured it out yet, Megabyte had ample opportunity to get to the Supercomputer when he pretended to be Bob. Even still, he didn't need to be Bob, he could have been anyone and no one would have known he had returned from the Web. He isn't trying to take over Mainframe, we aren't that important of a system. He came back because he wanted revenge. On Bob, Matrix, Mouse, Phong and me. He doesn't care about Mainframe. He wants to beat me at the game he lost last time. I don't want to drag the rest of Mainframe into this deletion trap.' She started shaking a little from the frustration.

Mouse got from her console and got to Dot, taking her gently by the shoulders. 'Dot, honey, we will all be doing our job. You don't have to do this alone.'

Dot relaxed her shoulders. She looked at Mouse and AndrAIa, then said, 'Too many were lost during the viral wars. I don't want that to happen again.'

AndrAIa became distracted by something behind them. She directed Dots attention. 'Look over there.' They all looked at the security camera focused on Dot's Diner. The neon sign flickered on and off briefly, then gave a quick progression of sporadic blinks.

They watched it continue and Dot started smiling, 'It's Bob!' She grabbed her organizer and started recording the message.

Mouse looked at it and realized what Dot was doing, 'He's communicating in binary.'

AndrAIa asked, 'Is he saying he and Matrix are at the Diner?'

Dot remained silent for a moment, then said, 'It's repeating itself, it must be a preliminary alert.' She showed what it said, _**Not for a crash, not now. I'm still here. **_Dot said, 'I think he is hoping we catch this and watch for a later message.' Then she addressed AndrAIa. 'I don't think they're at the Diner. They are probably still in the Principle Office, in the core control room. They're bypassing Megabytes control of the War Room, and communicating through the power relays of the Diner.'

Mouse wondered, 'I didn't know either of them had the expertise for something that specific.'

Dot shook her head, 'They don't. Bob is probably faking it.'

AndrAIa raised her hands in a motion to stop, 'Wait, how do we know that Megabyte isn't behind this? It could be a trap to lead us out into the open.'

They all paused to think, then Dot said, 'I know it is Bob. Right before the system crash, I told Bob he could escape through the portals. He didn't really answer me, but I knew he didn't want to leave Mainframe again. After the crash and system restart, I asked him never to leave me again.' She held up her organizer with the binary message. 'That is what this message is referring to. It's something only we would know together.'

Mouse asked, 'So what's the plan now?'

After a moment's pause, Dot said, 'I'll figure that out soon enough.'

* * *

Jeremie asked Joel, 'So you're telling me that this Megabyte is connected to Lyoko.'

'I don't have any proof, but in searching the area of the web Megabyte was lost, I found a hub, having the same symbol as that…' He pointed to the floor of the tower, which had the Eye of Xana. '…and it led me here.'

Ulrich asked, 'What exactly is a Trojan-Horse virus?'

Jeremie's voice boomed out around the tower. 'A Trojan-Horse is able to hide from anti-virus scans by appearing as another program.'

Joel added, 'It's a rare and dangerous virus type; that's why I was sent.'

Jeremie began bringing up other files and folders, 'I would like to get more information; does your ship have an onboard database? You know, information on the hub you found.'

'Yes it does, maybe that'll help you figure out if this "Xana" is involved.'

'The best thing we have to interface with your ship is the Skidbladnir, our own vessel.

He quickly exited the tower and got to the Expedition. Jeremie directed where he could get to the Skidbladnir docking bay. Jeremie took control of the Skid and activated the link-up procedure. 'It'll take me a minute to download the information.'

Joel exited his ship and told Yumi, 'I was in your network for about a second, and this ship is what led me to your system. It was the only sign of activity I could find.'

'Yeah Lyoko is one of a kind. There isn't any other supercomputer like it.'

Ulrich then realized something Joel said, 'Wait, you said you were in our network for only a second? That's not enough time to do anything.'

Now Joel was confused, 'What do you mean?'

Ulrich was about to say something but Yumi stepped in, 'I think it is just another culture gap, he has a different term for what we use.' She looked at Joel, 'In our terminology, a second is a very brief moment in time, like this…' She waved her hand to demonstrate a second's length. 'That is a second.'

With a little curiosity, Joel said, 'That is about a nanosecond to me; you call that a second?'

Jeremie called out to them, 'You can figure out the rosetta stone later, I've finished downloading the information.' He was looking over the log files of the monolith and the symbols. He looked at Odd. 'Everything here seems to correspond with the same programming code used by the supercomputer to create Lyoko. It's definitely old, but advanced for its time. I think it may be an early program Franz Hopper created.'

Odd was a little stunned, 'Well that is certainly connecting the dots. Xana must have known about it if he knew everything Franz Hopper knows.'

From what Odd said, Jeremie realized the magnitude of what it could be and he communicated back to everyone on Lyoko. 'Guys, the hub uses the same code as the supercomputer, I think Xana is operating in the net that Joel is from. Everything is coming together. It makes sense really, we only learned about it just now, so Xana has been able to operate there without our interference. It's the perfect place to hide.'

Surprising everyone, Aelita stood forward and said, 'Then we know our next course of action, we're going to the net to hunt down Xana.'

Jeremie said without trying to argue with her, 'It's not that simple Aelita, we are going to be in an area of cyberspace that we don't know the rules to. There is going to be a hundred different variables to account for. We don't even know where to begin looking.'

She responded quickly, 'Do you remember what you said the other day? You said we needed an advantage when it came to our fight with Xana. And you said that we needed to make sure that we hurt him in some way. This is our chance.' She looked at Joel, 'Where is Megabyte?'

'He was in a small system called Mainframe.'

Aelita nodded, 'Then that's where I'm going.'

Yumi and Ulrich exchanged looks and Yumi said, 'I agree with Aelita, I going there too.' Followed by Ulrich immediately after, 'I'm right with you.'

Jeremie looked at Odd, expecting him to give his decision too. Odd looked at him indignantly, 'Well, what do you think?' He folded his arms. 'I'm with them.'

Jeremie shrugged his shoulders, 'Okay, then it's decided.' He looked some more of the information he downloaded, then slumped back in his chair.

Odd asked, 'What's wrong?'

'We've got another problem, the hub is a very low-yield file transfer. There is no way the Skid will fit through the portal.'

While Joel didn't know why, everyone else grew silent; their confidence didn't mean anything without the Skid.

Without the Skid, they wouldn't be linked up to Lyoko.

* * *

Bob stepped away from the console. He put his face in his hands, thinking hard about his next action. Matrix asked, 'Do you think she's got it?'

'I hope so; I've been repeating the same thing for the last 30 nanos.'

'She probably has a plan set up; we need to find some way to get her to communicate back.'

Bob held up Glitch, 'System scan.' Glitch did a check over Mainframe, feeding the results back to Bob. 'Thirty-five more have been infected. He's not slowing down at all.' He kept reading, then he moved quickly and flattened himself against the wall. 'There are some moving in our direction.'

Matrix reacted the same way, moving to the side of the doorway and watching how visible he was from the outside. He said softly, 'How many?'

Bob glanced around the corner, then turned back to Matrix. 'It's a small squadron, about eight soldiers.'

Matrix's hand went to his gun. 'Any one of them could be Megabyte.'

Bob held up his hand, asking him to wait, 'We can't take that chance. We'll give away our location and we'll have more virals coming here within nanoseconds. It's too big a risk.'

'Then I guess we hide again. Wait for them to pass by.' Matrix closed the panel they were working with. Then he and Bob climbed into a service tunnel and closed the hatch behind them.

* * *

The Time for Action

The group gathered into Jeremie's room, taking a brief moment to think, leaving Joel on Lyoko. They all were well aware of the risks involved with the proposed mission, and that perpetuated the silence. Jeremie finally spoke up, 'Well, in the last few hours our fight against Xana has taken on a whole new perspective.'

Odd added, 'It has sure killed my enjoyment of video games.'

Ulrich asked, 'And there is absolutely no way to get the Skid over there.'

Jeremie shook his head. 'From the data Joel provided, there is too narrow of a bandwidth. If I removed all the software on the Skid that links you back to the scanner here, I might be able to get it through the threshold, but then it doesn't solve any of our problems.'

In his own little world, Odd wondered aloud, 'Would Tetris be okay?'

Ulrich exclaimed, 'Odd, you can stop now!'

'I'm sorry, but I found out that I've contributed to a massacre. Who would have thought that video games would be so dangerous?'

Jeremie perked up slightly, 'Wait, Odd, that's it!' He swung over to his computer and inserted the thumb drive with all the information he took from the Expedition. 'Joel said that the "game cubes" were the greatest source of energy outside of a system core, and that they travel from one system to another.' He used the Expeditions database on game energy, then linked up with the Supercomputers processor to scan through their network. Everyone gathered around him, watching him move across the keyboard with speed.

Odd imitated an English accent from a documentary he had seen, 'And here we see the native "Einstein" in his natural habitat.'

Jeremie finished and pointed at a section of the network. 'There we go, that is where the online game stream is from our perspective. The file transfer they use is more than enough for our needs, all we need is the IP address.'

Aelita spoke up, 'Wait Jeremie, you plan on downloading us through the game and into Mainframe? Are you sure that's possible?'

'It shouldn't be difficult, but I'd rather not hack everything to access the game stream, more can go wrong that way. I need a high-bandwidth conversion system to link up to the Supercomputer.'

Everyone exchanged confused looks and did a collective, 'Huh?'

Jeremie paused for a moment to try and translate his thought process, '…I need a game console with online abilities.'

This time everyone did a collective, 'Oh…'

As tough a light bulb went off, Odd jumped up, 'Wait, you mean you need my Zeta-Station! I'll get it.' He darted out the door.

Yumi commented, 'Jeremie, you and Joel would get along really well. You seem to speak the same language.'

While waiting for Odd to return, Jeremie said, 'I wish there wasn't such a hurry, there is so much I would like to learn about Joel and the net. I'm certain there is a lot he would like to know about us.'

Aelita said, 'I'd guess he would like to as well. From what it seems like, his people consider us to be gods. How often do you get to meet with your gods?'

Yumi added, 'Actually, the fact that we are going to the net is better than talking about it. We'll get to know their culture and lifestyle. Maybe make some friends.'

Odd came back with the Zeta Station and all the necessary cords. Taking it from him, Jeremie said, 'Thanks.' Then he opened it up with a screwdriver.

This caught Odd off guard. 'Wait, what are you doing?'

Without stopping his work, Jeremie explained, 'I can't just plug it into the Supercomputer, I'll need to do some splicing. I'm getting the needed component from this.' When Odd's expression didn't change from his worried state, he finished, 'Don't worry, I'll put it back together when I'm done. I'm the electronics guy, remember.'

Drawing everyone's attention to her, Aelita said, 'I'm surprised no one's thought about this yet, but this trip could take a couple days. We probably need to get ready here so no one is wondering where we are while we're gone.'

Everyone grew silent again, realizing there was a lot to prepare for.

Ulrich nudged Odd, 'You know what this means, don't you? The three-day weekend is gone.'

Odd sighed in disappointment.

Authors Commentary

This is getting really fun for me to write. Especially the dialogue. It's not about making it funny, but making it fast paced and rhythmic.

Here is the teaser for the next chapter:

_The Lyoko warriors make their preparations to travel to Mainframe, keeping track of everything they need and figuring out how to explain their prolonged absence. The battle for Mainframe continues as they rally around each other, and prepare to challenge Megabyte head on._


	5. The Rabbit Hole

**Authors Commentary**

This chapter is going to be relatively short compared to the others, mostly because I have already broken down the entire story and where it breaks off into chapters. This chapter is integral to the plot, but doesn't need to be longer then it is.

* * *

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 4: The Rabbit Hole

An armored binome carrier passed over the sky, joining with a dozen others, all marked with the same viral blue and lime green. The fleet passed by and circled the Principle Office. Down below in the lower level there was a detachment of viral officers guarding the entrance to the archives.

From a secluded spot on the edge of a building, Dot looked over the edge and examined the archive entrance with a pair of binoculars. Taking another look at the ABC fleet, she mumbled to herself, 'Just one more pass.' As the fleet went overtop Dot signaled to Mouse right next to her, who used a laser pointer device to signal to AndrAIa some distance away.

AndrAIa signaled back and quickly began her move. She stealthily moved across a series of bridges to reach the wall of the principle office, all without being noticed. She was overhead the patrol guard and prepared herself, expanding her fingernails.

Dropping down in their midst, she pricked several guards, paralyzing them before the others even knew she was there. They began to react and attack her, but AndrAIa already had the upper hand. She swung her trident around, knocking them down and out before they could mount any sort of attack.

AndrAIa motioned to the main group that she was done and swiftly a small party came to the archive entrance, including Dot. Mouse remained at the top to maintain surveillance. The CPU party had their appearance changed to look like the virals. Dot linked up with the archive security system, and hacked through it using her own override commands. The doors opened and they threw the unconscious viral officers inside to avoid making a scene. Dot and AndrAIa closed the door, tied up the officers and headed to the archive chamber. The CPU officers stood guard to avoid suspicion.

Outside, the ABC fleet made another pass by overhead.

--

Jeremie's hand reached out and adjusted the web camera attached to his desktop. After typing in a few more commands, a screen appeared revealing Joel's face in an extreme close up. 'Yes, it worked. This will allow me to follow you back into the net. That is an amazing device you have Joel.'

In the Carthage sector of Lyoko, Joel was communicating back to Jeremie through Vostro. 'Thanks, this thing has been a good friend.' He paused for a moment, 'So…that's what you look like.'

Jeremie continued to work at a series of programs, bringing up files on the appearance of Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and Aelita. 'Yeah, this is what this plain ol' user looks like.' He worked at a series of voice programs. 'By the way, how do you think everyone will respond to us being users?'

'I'm not sure, some might be bitter about the viruses and the games.'

'I was afraid of that.' Jeremie stopped for a moment and folded his arms to think. 'It may be better if you didn't describe us to them as users. You handled the shock all right, but it might be more then we need to deal with.'

Joel leaned against the Expeditions hull. 'I'll have to agree with you. Make things simpler and no one would know the difference.'

'I'm glad you agree. I'll get back to you when we're ready to get this started.' Jeremie ended the video feed and went back to the program he was working on. A knock came at the door and Jeremie said without looking around, 'Come in.'

Yumi opened the door and came inside. 'We've made our plans. Odd canceled a film he was going to show tonight and Ulrich backed out of a soccer game he was playing tomorrow. I told my parents I was going to sleep over at Aelita's tonight, and hopefully that'll be enough for this trip.' She exhaled after recounting that list. 'Do you have the clones ready?'

Jeremie nodded. 'Just about. I don't have the time to program them as complicated as the William clone, but they'll have basic communication skills and if they remain in your rooms, they shouldn't have too interact much.'

'This may sound pessimistic but…what if Xana attacks while we're in the twilight zone?'

Jeremie pushed his hands down on his table and tensed up slightly, 'I'm guessing he'll be too worried by our presence in Mainframe to make an attack through Lyoko.' He crossed his fingers, 'I hope.'

'Do you have any idea what Xana is doing in the net?'

Jeremie motioned for Yumi to sit down. 'I have some theories. You know Franz Hopper's diary is swiss-cheesed. But there are fragments that make mention of other projects he was working on. From the information Joel provided, I've patched up some of the holes by comparing them to the monolith-portal thing and I've made a connection. There are code pieces that suggest that it was designed to connect the two networks, but only for specific types of programs. One program it was designed to keep out was a multi-agent system.'

Yumi's eyes grew wide from that comment. 'So Xana can't be in the net.'

'No, somehow Xana was able to use someone on the other side of the hub to "widen the gate" so to speak; modify the system standards to let him through. The only way that can be done is through a viral infection.'

'Oh…okay. So that virus Megabyte is probably the one…'

'More than likely, but that's not all. I've also found out that it was finished in 1994, near the same time Aelita was first trapped in Lyoko…'

Yumi raised her hand, 'Long story short, Jeremie. Please.'

'…Considering the monolith's intention to keep Xana away from the net, Franz Hopper might be there.'

* * *

Starting the Fire

Dot and AndrAIa made it to the archive chamber, looking over the hundreds of different files it contained. Dot guided herself with her finger, trying to recall exactly where the item was. 'Lets see, the default command should be over…there.' She moved past a few additional files and found the device she was looking for. It had five connection plugs with a blue gem centered in the casing. Dot placed it in a bag and swung the strap over her shoulder.

AndrAIa looked around, keeping all her senses tuned towards the pathways leading to the Principle Office. 'I don't think anyone has found out about us yet, but it'll be better to regroup then try to get through the Principle Office and use that command file. I'm hearing all sorts of activity going on in there.'

Dot nodded, 'Okay. Hopefully Mouse can plug this in remotely and it'll get through that barrier Megabyte set up around the War Room consoles.'

They returned to the outside exit and slowly opened the door. Their CPU officers nodded at their arrival. One officer mentioned to Dot, 'We'll stay here as long as we can, maybe we'll be able to break them down from the inside.'

Dot replied, 'Thanks, when we're ready, we'll let you know.' She turned to leave, but then came up with an idea. 'When we're about half-way across, open fire on us, but let us escape. That'll give Megabyte a fake victory for his ego.'

AndrAIa added, 'Just don't hit us.' They dashed across the open field, hoping to avoid being seen. Just as they reached half-way, one of their officers called out to them to stop, and they began firing at them as planned.

They reached the other side safely, but they didn't intend to catch the full attention of the passing ABC patrol. Mouse was watching it all happen, and gave a quick signal with the laser pointer to alert AndrAIa and Dot. Several additional alarms went off and more ABC's headed to the area. Dot and AndrAIa found themselves being flanked by three of the carriers and scrambled for cover.

Mouse directed a soldier to her side and pointed at the battle going on. 'You'd better help the girls now.' The small binome soldier grabbed hold of a massive rocket launcher they had brought, and took aim at the ABC's. From his targeting screen, three reticules pinpointed the carriers and the soldier fired. A single missile headed out to them, then split into three separate warheads to hit the ABC's. They came crashing down into the city streets.

Mouse called out to another group, 'Find the wreckage and take any equipment you can find.'

Dot and AndrAIa came down upon the wreckage as their officers began scouring it for anything of value. They began pulling out weapons and a couple pieces of damaged equipment. Breathing heavily, Dot saw Mouse moving to their position. Dot looked at Mouse with an unhappy expression and yelled at her from across the way, 'I told you I didn't want any casualties.'

Mouse yelled back, 'Honey, you were being sideswiped. I did what needed to be done.'

Dot silently cursed, but became more concerned when another squadron of ABC's could be heard approaching. Mouse waved to Dot to get her attention. 'Don't worry, I got this one too.' She yelled out to the crew ransacking the wreckage. 'Time to move.' Everyone piled into three small transports they had and Mouse activated a device on her wrist. It was a detonator for a series of flash flares that shot up into the sky, blinding anyone and everyone to allow them to escape into the lower levels.

--

Jeremie was already situated at the supercomputer monitor as everyone else began pouring in. He looked around as everyone stood around the monitor. 'Everyone ready.'

They all responded in the affirmative, and Odd asked back, 'How 'bout you, Einstein.'

Jeremie said, 'This isn't going to be simple, I'm going to be hacking the system in real time. And I really don't want to scatter your digital essence across the World Wide Web.'

Ulrich turned toward the corridor that led to the scanners. 'Yeah, I'd appreciate if you didn't do that.' He motioned for everyone to follow, 'Let's get this going.' They all headed down to the scanners. Jeremie virtualized them all in one at a time.

As they made their way to the Skid, Jeremie turned his attention to Joel. 'We're good to go. It's your turn.'

In short order the Expedition arced from Lyoko's hub and made its way through the maze of hubs to arrive back at the monolith. Joel linked up to it and the portal activated once more, with him wasting no time to go through it again.

He reappeared at the identical monolith in the web, immediately feeling the heavier density of this part of cyberspace. He mapped out the current data on the web storm that surrounded the area. 'Alright Vostro, we've done this once before. We don't have to rush it.' The Expedition entered the storm and began avoiding the dangerous energy waves.

Over the link-up, Jeremie was able to follow both from his schematic at the monitor and from the visual link-up. He said, 'Wow! So this is the web.' He looked over the information he was receiving. His eyes narrowed as he received the telemetry data. 'From what it seems like, he isn't going over a different quantum cyberspace reality; he only accessed a network that we were unfamiliar with.'

The Skidbladnir had also exited the hub, and headed toward the game stream Jeremie had talked about. Odd remarked to Aelita, 'Could you translate Princess?'

She thought for a moment, 'Actually, that's about as simple as it gets.'

'Are you kidding me?'

'No.'

Jeremie called out to them, 'Okay, Joel's getting close, as soon as I get the IP address, I'll download you into the game stream.'

Joel rode through the web for a short time, getting closer to Mainframes location. As he came in closer, a dazzling display of particles washed outside them. Joel looked around with some hesitation, but seemed to know what it was.

But Jeremie didn't, 'Wait, what's going on? It is normal?'

Joel shook his head, 'No, those are defenses designed to keep the web creatures from the system. They would be attacking my ship if it registered as a web creature. It's a long story, trust me, I had to read about it for my briefing. This is a well known system.'

'What makes it so special? Is it a supercomputer?'

'No, the processor speed is hardly worth your time. But they are responsible for saving the net from a supervirus.'

'Wait, what?'

'Like I said, long story.' He shifted position and started informing Jeremie of his actions, 'Coming upon the tear. Readying the portal generator.'

The Expedition slowed as it approached the large tear. Several prongs emerged from the ship, aimed at the tear. 'Vostro, portal.' Vostro redirected its energy into the ship, and that energy was transferred through the prongs until a series of pulses fired at the tear until it stabilized. Joel started to pilot the Expedition forward until he noticed the strange appearance of the portal, darkened with a black cloud. Holding back, he said, 'What it all this about? That's not normal.' He examined all the sensor information he was getting back. 'Jeremie, are you getting this?'

Jeremie raced over the data, 'Oh yes, this is definitely Xana's work.' He began to break down the code step by step, until he found a key component. 'I think I've got it. I should pierce through this.'

'What is it?'

'It's a superlative firewall. It doesn't just lock down a specific file or area; it blocks out anything and everything related to this system. I'm guessing that they don't have any communications or online access.'

'Including portals!? There is nothing in the net that can interfere with a portal jump.'

'Well, Xana's involved, you should be ready for anything.' He pressed the enter key. 'There you go.'

The portal was washed over with a cleansing energy, and it returned to its normal crystal clean appearance. Joel leaned forward and entered the portal, emerging on the outskirts of Mainframe.

'Vostro, system scan.' Vostro displayed the results of the scan, and Joel reported to Jeremie, 'I'm registering several hundred infected. Megabyte has begun a war.' He brought in the Expedition tight and low to the ground.

Jeremie started dialing in on Mainframe's location. He reported to everyone waiting in the Skid. 'I'm figuring out where it is now, prepare for high-speed transfer. It's looking like it's in the north-western area of the United States, maybe south-west Canada.' He activated a few commands. '…I guess it doesn't really matter, but for your information.'

The Skid hovered over the circular hub. Aelita announced to them, 'Entering the hub in three seconds.' Right on cue the Skid dropped into the hub and disappeared in a glow of light and circuitry.

Joel exited the Expedition and activated a defensive shield. 'I'm going to locate the command dot com or anyone who would enter the game. I don't think you want anyone trying to win and end it prematurely while you're doing your thing.' He revealed a zipboard and flew into the sky, following a signal he got from the system scan.

Jeremie replied without slowing down his hacking process, 'Thanks, I'll send the game in five minutes.'

'Five minutes!' Joel exclaimed, but quickly remembered, 'Oh…the different terms.' He looked at Vostro, 'Vostro, countdown five nanos, start.' Vostro's screen began the countdown.

* * *

Downloaded

Dot surveyed the unloading of the spoils from their recent operation.

She was interrupted as they heard the lock to the main doorway of the bunker start to creak. They all froze and remained silent as they became fully aware of what it was. Dot whispered, 'Defensive grid five, position four.' Everyone who carried a weapon assembled quickly to Dot's instruction, taking aim at the bunker door.

Joel pushed open the heavy doors and walked in to see several dozen target reticules dancing across his chest. Looking up he saw everyone poised and ready for him. He slowly raised his hands, really wanting to avoid getting shot.

'Who are you?' Dots voice echoed as she came forward. She kept her distance to allow everyone to keep a clear shot.

As calmly as he could, Joel answered, 'I am Guardian 627; I'm from the supercomputer and on a mission from Turbo. I'm searching for the Command dot com of Mainframe. I'm assuming you must be Dot Matrix.'

Keeping an icy exterior, Dot responded, 'I am, but considering we are fighting a Trojan horse virus, you can understand that I don't believe you.'

Joel nodded, 'I understand. I am looking for Guardian 452.'

'Bob is indisposed for the moment. And you're not doing a good job defending your position.'

Joel nodded again 'Okay.' He thought for a moment. 'I don't really have time to argue with you, but if I was the virus Megabyte, wouldn't it be easier to take on the form of someone you know, instead of a random Guardian you never met.'

Folding her arms, Dot responded, 'Megabyte could just as easily have taken that into account, and rationalize it just as you have.'

Joel sighed in frustration, 'Man, you're a tough lady to please.' He took another moment to think. 'So…you want more then logic, you want proof. Okay…' Thinking quickly, Joel kept his hands up, but twisted his left forearm to brandish Vostro to them.

One of the soldiers exclaimed, 'He has a keytool!' They all began murmuring amongst themselves.

Dot quickly said, 'Keep your weapons on him.' and everyone complied. She then added, 'Okay, you can lower your hands now. But I need something more than just that.'

Joel lowered his hands, and glanced at what remained of the countdown. 'There is a system that is located beyond the net. Its name is Lyoko. The…uh…sprites there have an enemy who can transverse between systems. I followed its trail between the web, their system, and back to Mainframe. This "Xana" is powerful and it explains how you have a communications breakdown and why Megabyte can change shape. The "Lyoko Warriors" are interested in helping you because they consider Xana to be their responsibility.'

Dot stared at him disbelievingly, then responded, 'Do you realize just how random that sounds?'

'Believe me, I know.'

'How many of them are coming?'

'Four.'

'Only four, do you really think that they'll make a difference.'

Joel confidently nodded, 'Oh yes.'

'When will they get here?'

'That's why I came to you; they have some control over the games, and will be downloading themselves when the next one arrives.' Dot repeated her disbelieving stare. He added, 'I know… sounds random. But I need you to not send anyone to fight in the game. It'll leave harmlessly on its own.' The countdown completed and Vostro emitted a buzzer noise. Joel looked at Dot and said in a deadpan way, 'Incoming game.'

Suddenly, the system voice came on and gave off the announcement that they have heard many times before. _'Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game.' _Everyone in the bunker gave off a slight air of panic, looking around them, somewhat afraid at what may happen.

Dot looked at Joel, who said simply, 'Do you believe me now?'

--

The game landed in the Kits Sector. Jeremie worked as fast as he could and aligned the Skid and its occupants to exit the game. A minute or two passed by, and Jeremie finished his work.

Soon the system voice came on again to say, _'Game Over.'_ And the game departed back into the sky, leaving the Skid floating near the Eight-Ball Apartment complex.

This gave everyone their first glimpse of Mainframe, which exceeded their expectations to find a large and expansive city. They all got up from their seats to get a better view. Yumi said, 'Well I sure wasn't expecting this.'

Odd asked, 'What were you expecting, a giant circuit-board? Because that's what I was expecting.'

Jeremie capped off the moment by saying, 'Everyone, welcome to Mainframe.'

**Authors Commentary**

I was really surprised how quickly I wrote this chapter. Normally it takes me a few weeks of tinkering and few major sessions, but this one only took 3 days and 3 major sessions. I don't know, maybe its cause I'm getting to the real meat of the story, and its coming together so quickly because I've had it in my head for so long.

Teaser for the next chapter-

_The added strength of the Lyoko Warriors gives Dot the encouragement to enact her plan to retake Mainframe. But the dangerous virus will not make things easy for them, and he tightens his grip. Meanwhile, Joel returns to the Supercomputer to be debriefed on his mission, and learns some startling information. _


	6. Users Among Sprites

**Authors Commentary**

It's taken five chapters, but they've finally made it to Mainframe. And trust me, it's far from completed. I hope you're enjoying the process.

* * *

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 5: Users Among Sprites

Enzo looked around his dark cell. He has had very little nourishment since Megabyte had taken him captive and that kept him perpetually tired. The fingers on his right hand tapped against the wall in a certain rhythm, mimicking in succession a variety of different songs he liked. Every once in a while he would hum out the melody at the same time.

'Man I'm bored.'

He looked to the cell across from him, holding his father. Welman was removed from the exo-suit shortly after the initial takeover and was placed in a well-sealed clear container. As a null he can squeeze through very tight spaces, so the container and the firewall protected cell added more insurance against an escape. The container also made it very difficult for them to communicate with each other. Enzo leaned forward; then called out to him in a very loud voice. 'Hey Dad, how are you doing?'

Welmans voice could barely be heard through the layers between them, but his response sounded like, 'I'm fine, but I'm more worried about you.'

Enzo was about to respond until the nearby guard yelled at him to stay quiet. The young sprite looked at the guard with distaste, stuck his tongue out at him, and then slumped back against the wall to pout as only someone his age could. He said to himself, 'Any minute now Bob will rush in here to rescue me, Matrix will delete Megabreath with his gun, and Mouse will do her…hacker thing she does; all based on my sister's plan.' He nodded satisfactorily to himself. 'Yeah, that's right.'

He remained in that slumped and bored position for another while, imagining the heroic counterattack against the evil viral forces. Suddenly the system's voice came on and announced the approach of a game. He looked to the ceiling for a habitual glance, then looked across to his dad. 'Not much we can do about that here. I hope Megadork gets trapped in the game and the user wins.' Despite his age, even he realized just how cold that sounded.

Not long later, the voice returned and announced the game leaving. His eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. 'That was quick, even if Bob was in the game.'

--

After the game cube had completely left the sky, the Skidbladnir slowly moved around as the ship made a visual sweep of the surrounding area. Odd said excitedly, 'Well, let's check it out.'

Jeremie started bringing up the program to transfer them to the surface. Just as he was about to activate it, a warning light appeared in Aelita's console. She reported to Jeremie, 'We have a proximity alert.'

Just as she said it, four ABC vehicles rose up, taking a high angle attack position, aiming their primary cannons directly at the Skid. One of them took the forward position, and a voice from a loudspeaker echoed from it. 'Unidentified vessel, power down your engines, disembark and prepare to be taken into custody.'

A little sheepish, Jeremie said to them, 'I forgot to tell you that Joel had detected a heavy virus infection in the system. There is a kind of war going on.'

Keeping an eye on the cannons pointed at her, Yumi remarked, 'I didn't think it would be so literal.'

The message was repeated to them, adding an ultimatum at the end. 'Failure to comply will result in immediate deletion, by orders of Lord Megabyte.'

Aelita asked the others, 'So…what do we do?'

Odd said, 'I vote we don't get…uh…deleted.'

Ulrich called out to Jeremie, 'Where's Joel?'

'I'm getting on that right now.' Jeremie brought up Joel's video screen. 'Hey, what's going on?'

Joel was in a hurry but quickly said, 'I'm working with the command dot com and she is preparing an escort and hiding place for your ship, but it'll take a nano. I'm aware of the viral mobilization. Until we get there, either engage them…or hide.'

Quickly relaying the message, Jeremie asked, 'Is there any place to hide?'

Yumi replied, 'Not if they're going to chase us. We don't have the time.'

Without a moment's break, Jeremie said, 'Then engage.' He activated the materialization program and Ulrich, Odd and Yumi faded from their Nav-Skids and appeared again on the surface of Mainframe. Aelita remained to pilot the Skid.

The ABC's took notice and the loudspeaker called out to them. 'Is that your entire crew, or do you plan to resist?'

Unsheathing his swords and taking a fighting pose, Ulrich replied, 'Of course we plan to resist.'

Yumi pulled out her fans and Odd made a break for the closest tank. The ABC's opened fire with their smaller cannons, while Aelita quickly switched the Skid into the more agile fighter mode. She tried to bring up the Skid weapons, but an error symbol came up. 'Jeremie, the torpedoes are designed for use in the digital sea; they aren't going to work in this environment.'

Jeremie quickly crunched the data and agreed with her. 'I was afraid of that. Help is on the way; just keep yourself out of the line of fire. We don't know the damage capability these things have.'

Turning sharply to the side, Aelita pulled back and pushed the Skid into the narrow streets, with one of the tanks making a close pursuit. It unleashed a display of firepower which impact off the Skid's shields.

--

Odd unleashed a barrage of laser arrows that impacted into the side and undercarriage of the ABC he targeted, but otherwise doing little damage. 'Well laser arrows aren't going to work here. Time for a different strategy.' He changed directions and galloped forward on all fours, gaining speed towards a nearby building as the ABC raced behind him. He jumped on top of a dumpster, then launched himself to the top of a storage shed, and kept climbing until he could get on a more even level with the tank. He launched himself overtop of it, unleashing a few laser arrows down at the tank, one impacting a secondary gun and damaged it.

He hit the ground fairly hard, but used the momentum of his landing to roll to his side and back to his feet. He darted along the wall to the edge and he moved between buildings, with the ABC behind him. As it rounded the alley corner, it opened up its full spotlights, illuminating any darkened areas. It gently panned side to side, trying to find Odd. Inside, the viral binome officer asked, 'Where did he go?'

Odd suddenly jumped from a higher position with a battle cry and landed on top of the ABC. He located the hatch and grabbed hold of the panel, digging his claws into the latch. He mumbled to himself while grunting with the strain, 'Just like taking sardines out of a can.' He finally broke the lock and opened the hatch, giving him his first view of the binomes inside. More than slightly perplexed by their appearance, he said, 'What are…you know what, never-mind. I'm going to stop asking these tourist questions.'

He dropped inside and all you could hear from the outside is the scuffle and the ABC was rocking chaotically. One officer tried to escape through the hatch, but Odd's paw reached up and grabbed him by the head, dragging him back in. When the noise dialed down, the unconscious crew of three were thrown outside, with Odd climbing out soon afterward, clapping his paws together to get the dust off them.

--

A fan circled about, missing the second ABC by only a small fraction. Yumi snagged the fan on the return path and took a more distant defensive stance, keeping on the front of her feet. The ABC carefully aimed its main cannon, then quickly charged and fired it. Yumi made a quick jump to the side, but the explosion propelled her forward faster than she intended. She slid across the ground and took a moment to regain focus, watching as the tank began firing from its subcannons. She jumped to her feet and deflected the first volley with her fans, while keeping on the move towards a parked transport vehicle. Stopping her fan defense, she made a break for the transport diving forward into a tumble, then into a hand-spring, landing on the hood of the vehicles cab.

She turned and poised her fans at the tank, almost daring it to make a move. Instead of firing at her like she was expecting, the tank opened up a battering ram type device on the front, and rushed in to smash Yumi and the vehicle together. Quickly changing her plans, she leapt from the cab and reached out to grab a street light. Spinning around on it as the cab exploded from the impact, she gathered momentum and flung herself off, gracefully throwing her fan at the ABC. The fan cleanly sliced the main cannon off the rest of the body, and the loose piece fell to the ground with a thud.

The ABC turned toward her, somewhat comically as its primary weapon was now detached. The soldiers inside were obviously uncertain what to do now, as Yumi took notice of a periscope that allowed them to see. The tank made another attempt to ram Yumi, but she did a quick step-up and ran across the top, slicing off the periscope as she passed by it. The soldiers inside were confused by what exactly happened and the tank smashed into the ground in an awkward angle, damaging it enough to keep it down.

--

Ulrich's swords were spinning at high speed, trying to match the more firepower heavy tactic of this third ABC. During the onslaught, he took notice of the main cannon beginning to charge up. Making a quick jump, the blast went underneath him and damaged a nearby building. Ulrich kept his face to the tank, but started running backwards trying to challenge it into chasing after him. The tank followed suit, opening up a line of fire, but Ulrich had turned and ran at his full regular speed towards a building cluster. Once he had lured the tank into the enclosure, Ulrich saw a balcony ahead of him. He pushed himself into a superprint and hit against the wall, running up the side and leapt to the balcony's edge, then pushed off of it to launch himself backwards and onto the tank.

Wasting no time, Ulrich sliced into one of the secondary guns, destroying it. The officers inside tried to shake him off of it by tilting the ABC to the side, then rocking it back and forth. As his footing started to give way, Ulrich grabbed hold of the damaged stub of the gun. Thinking quickly and seeing the nearby building, he planted his feet and on the return rock he jumped off the ABC, only to reach the building and he turned in mid-air, planting his feet again and jumping off of the wall back onto the tank. He quickly sliced off another gun before running across and jumping off again on the other side, hitting the building wall on the other side, and repeating the process.

He continued this pattern and every return he did some damage to the tank, either slicing off a gun or taking aim at a random cable or a place that appeared to be lesser armor. With each pass the tank progressively looked worse and worse, until Ulrich hit a stabilizer and it careened out of control. The binome officers inside ejected as the tank crashed hard. Sparks flew around the smashed hulk until it exploded into a massive fireball. Ulrich landed some distance away in a crouching position, still holding both swords.

Odd returned from his fight in time to see the spectacular explosion, when his attention was turned to hear the gunfire from the chase Aelita was having with the first tank. Aelita maneuvered around a tight corner, where the ABC didn't fare as well, clipping the edge and spinning out of control. Aelita turned the Skid to hover over top her team mates. The ABC almost lost control, but managed to right itself and reposition towards its target. It hesitated to attack after taking notice of the other fallen ABC tanks, but started to charge up its main cannon. Behind the tank, a small squadron led by Dot and accompanied by Joel emerged, with Dot giving out strategic commands and pointing at the last ABC. A binome soldier took aim with a precision rifle and hit a critical component in the rear of the ABC, causing the fuel reserves to catch fire but not explode, and it crashed to the surface.

Joel came forward on his zipboard and stopped in front of the Lyoko group, hovering there for a moment, surveying the three downed ABC's that they took care of. He nodded approvingly, 'Nice.' He pointed to Dot, 'Work with her.'

Dot waved for a large cargo transport vehicle to move forward. It had the general appearance of a semi-truck, except the trailer it carried was a cylindrical hexagon easily large enough to fit the Skid inside. Dot motioned to Aelita to move the Skid into place, and it fit snuggly inside. Jeremie materialized her from the Skid and she appeared suddenly outside the cargo vehicle. Dot was surprised by Aelita's appearance, and asked, 'How did you do that?'

Remembering early on that they were dealing with another society, Aelita tried to be as simple as possible. 'It's how we exit our ships.' Trying to act casual, she extended her hand, 'My name is Aelita.' Dot kindly took Aelita's hand and they shook hands. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi made their way around the truck and stood next to Aelita.

Trying to hide a confused look, Dot continued on, 'I am Dot Matrix, Command-Dot-Com of Mainframe. On behalf of the people of Mainframe, I welcome you.'

Feeling that since she was the first to talk to Dot, Aelita took the lead. 'On behalf of all of us, thank you. This is Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi.' She pointed to each one in turn.

Dot was about to say something when a soldier nudged her and pointed in Joel's direction. Joel stood between them and the open field, arms crossed. He pointed with his head toward the burning wreckage of one of the ABC's. He didn't need to say anything additional. Dot understood and began walking to the transport vehicle. 'Please come with me, we don't want to remain here for too long.' They all loaded in and they moved down into the lower levels to avoid detection.

While riding, Dot would frequently look in their direction with an attentive expression, but would always look away after a moment. Aelita asked, 'Is there something wrong?'

Trying to not seem offensive, Dot said to them, 'You're not exactly what I expected when I was told an elite virus insulate team from an advanced system would be arriving.' She took a look at Odd specifically, 'You don't seem much older than my younger brother.'

Everyone was a little hesitant to respond, they weren't exactly sure what to tell her. Realizing that she had inadvertently made herself their spokeswoman, Aelita did her best to answer, 'In our…system…we are also considered young, but we are all very well trained and capable.'

Dot quickly agreed, 'I saw that.' She looked around at their location, apparently making sure they weren't followed. 'I do have other questions, like how are you able to use the game cube?'

'We have certain abilities that allow us to transfer ourselves through the game streams. Just so you know we have never done it before now; it was just the best way for us to get here.'

Dot looked at them in surprise, 'My entire life I thought that only the user could control the games.'

From behind them Odd remarked, 'Yeah, you'd think.' Startling them, he suddenly gave out a nervous laugh. With everyone's attention uncomfortably focused on him, Odd quickly settled down and grew quiet.

From that break, Yumi spoke up. 'There are going to be a lot of questions, for both of us. Until Joel found us, we were unaware of your existence as well. But we do want to help.'

Dot nodded and smiled, 'Thanks, it's…relieving to know someone _can_.'

The two transports arrived at the G-Prime bunker. Dot directed the crews to unload the trailer holding the Skid and she escorted the Lyoko team inside. Inside they got their first look at the set-up of the bunker, with vid-windows scattered everywhere, showing different locations of Mainframe. She quickly introduced the Lyoko team to Mouse.

The hacker stood up and greeted the new arrivals. 'It's a pleasure to meet all y'all. We could definitely use you.' She then updated Dot on her progress. 'The e-x-e program in this command couldn't penetrate the code. It's a foreign operating system, completely different than anything I've ever encountered.' She tossed the default command disk to Dot.

'Okay, so if we manage a direct hardware install, should that do the trick. But getting it there is also the trick.'

The only one of the Lyoko group to follow the last exchange between the two was Aelita, and even then it was tenuous. Trying not to seem too foreign, she asked, 'What is the exact purpose of that command?' pointing at the disk.

Dot turned it over in her hand a few times. 'We risked exposure to get this default command from the archives. Megabyte has control over the primary functions of the Principle Office, overriding my codes. This command should override his changes and revert things back to their original settings. It is the best way of regaining immediate control.' Dot suddenly got to business. She brought up a design schematic for the building. 'I have several possible plans to accomplish this. You might be the needed strength to take it back.'

Rolling his shoulders and getting excited, Odd said, 'Finally, we're getting to the good stuff.'

Mouse addressed the team. 'I saw your work out there, very impressive.' She motioned toward a vid-window that revealed the aftermath. Viral crews surrounded the area they fought in, picking up the damage from the downed ABC's. She then brought up the video footage of Ulrich's fight, showing that she watched it all happen. Pulling her own sword from its sheath, Mouse said, 'You're a boy after my own heart.' She sat back to let Dot explain things to them, and she lightly began using a sharpening stone for her blade.

Bringing up additional files, Dot said, 'I'm going to give you a crash course in how our system is organized. I need everyone familiar with how things are set up.' A large map of Mainframe appeared on a vid-window. 'We have six sectors: Kits, Baudway, Floating Point, Beverly Hills, Wall Street, and Getty-Prime, our current location. I'm planning to keep any open combat located in Floating Point to minimize civilian collateral.' She enlarged a file on the Principle Office. 'This is our first priority. There is the outer ring, an inner ring and then the Office proper. There are six entrances around the Office proper, with one having a main foyer. The Primary Operations Center, also called the War Room, is located on floor 28 situated overtop entrance beta.' Everything she described to them was marked down clearly on the diagram, so they had a decent understanding of the layout.

--

Joel had quietly secluded himself from the group, taken refuge in a quiet corner then brought up his link with Jeremie. Talking quietly, he asked, 'Can you do an anti-virus of the Principle Office like you did the portal?'

Jeremie turned from the code he was analyzing. 'I've been looking over the viral infection. The portal was only a temporary fix. I need the Skid to link-up with the system core operations center to do a thorough cleansing. I'm guessing that's what your "principle office" is.'

'How long will it take?'

'Only a minute. Err…' Jeremie slapped himself in the head for forgetting the time lingo. 'Sorry, about a nano.'

Joel smiled, 'It's okay; I knew what you meant anyway.'

--

Addressing Yumi, Dot asked, 'What is the accuracy and range for you weapons?'

Pulling out her fans, Yumi shrugged, 'I've never really measured it, but I'm alright with them.' Demonstrating her skill, they made a precision slice across the room, catching a binome officer by surprise and cutting his cigar in half. The binome jumped back, confused as to where it came from. The fan circled up and over the rafters, suddenly imbedding into one of the beams.

Seeing how high it was, Dot was about to call a man-lift to retrieve the fan when Odd said nonchalantly, 'I got it.' Walking over to a nearby wall, Odd used his claws to climb up the sheer edge face and made his way to the top. Balancing himself on the beam, he walked across and pulled out the fan from the surface. He twisted to the side and dropped down back into their midst, handing it back to Yumi.

While his actions were done casually, Dot seemed particularly interested in what Odd just did. She looked at him and said, 'I think my strategy just changed; I have a use for you.' She waved for everyone to come in closer, 'Okay everyone, here's the plan.'

* * *

The Gathering Storm

After quickly telling Dot that he was leaving, Joel returned to the Expedition, which unfortunately had gathered the attention of a viral ground patrol. The current defensive shield prevented the patrol from entering the vessel, but Joel somehow had to get past them. This forced him to act more aggressively and activate the automated self-defenses. A turret emerged and began firing at the virals, and in the ensuing distraction, Joel made a quick rush to his ship, opening the back doors and getting inside before anyone had a chance to react. He lifted off in the midst of the weapons fire from the patrol and made his way to the outer boundaries of Mainframe, and eventually out deep into the energy sea.

He kept going until he almost reached the boundary of the system itself, when he found a tear suitable for his needs. 'Vostro, portal.' Like before, his keytool funneled the stabilizing energy through the ship and the portal had a smoky, dark appearance. 'Jeremie, some help please?'

Jeremie activated the wash program he used earlier and the portal cleaned up. Joel punched through and his viewpoint quickly changed to the outer sub-systems of the Supercomputer. Jeremie got his first look at this system and he was amazed. Joel pointed down below, 'I'll give you a tour.' He pointed to the large metropolis in front. 'That is the central system.' He motioned towards the eight adjacent sectors connected to the primary city. 'Those are the sub-systems, each one the size of Mainframe.' Finishing the spoken tour, Joel pointed at the dozens of smaller bridges interconnecting platforms, which are small compared to the sub-systems. 'And those three dozen or so platforms are called micro-systems.'

'Lyoko almost looks bland by comparison.'

With a quick reply, Joel said, 'That was my first reaction too, but the tower energy in one sector alone on Lyoko dwarfs anything the Supercomputer can manage.' Joel relayed through several Guardian channels until he accessed Turbo's personal frequency.

The square features of the Prime Guardian appeared on his monitor, and the man said, 'Joel! When did you get back?'

'Just this nano, Turbo. I have a lot to report.'

'Get in quickly, Joel. We have had a crisis on our hands while you have been gone. Just get here and give your report.'

Confused at Turbo's words, Joel's mind raced to think of what could be going on. He remained patient enough to dock the Expedition and get over to the Central Conference Room of the Guardian Council. He faced against the five other Guardians that formed the council, with Turbo at the lead. He docked in a data chip from the Expedition so that he could reveal images he had taken along the way. Joel prepared to give a presentation on the current events, and waited to be given the go-ahead. Turbo sat down and the other Guardians were in their place. Turbo gave Joel the nod for the go-ahead.

Joel opened up the first image, which was a series of images from the various sensors pings he had done in the web. 'Within the first second from receiving this mission, I had made large strides towards searching the web. From the sensor sweeps, I made an assumption concerning a large storm that was inconsistent with other patterns. Taking initiative, I traversed through the massive storm until I reached the "eye" of the storm. It was in this location that I found my sensors virtually useless, in fact painful to use. But within this eye, I had located a structure, cylindrical in shape. Further investigation revealed the structure to…'

A female guardian interrupted him to ask, 'What does this have to do with the dilemma at hand?'

Frozen in his place, Joel didn't know what to say, 'I'm not sure what you are talking about?'

Turbo took control of the conversation to explain, 'Hundreds of systems have suddenly been completely shut off from any on-line access or communication whatsoever. Including portals.'

Joel exclaimed, 'That is what I encountered in Mainframe!'

Catching him in his words, Turbo asked, 'What were you doing in Mainframe?'

Pausing for a moment's thought, Joel then pointed at the projector behind him and asked, 'Can I continue with my slide-show?'

--

At Dot's Diner, a viral patrol made its way past, some commotion can be seen off in the distance. AndrAIa emerged from the same alley that she set up the surveillance camera, watching carefully. Whispering to the camera, she said, 'It looks like the new arrivals have set some things off. Other people are starting to resist.' On the other end of the video feed, Dot acknowledged AndrAIa's remark.

Adjusting the strap on the backpack she was carrying, AndrAIa made a quick dash to the darkened diner; no one had been using it for a while now. Dot had deliberately avoided returning until now because it was such a well known spot in Mainframe. After slipping in, she made her way to the lower floor. She turned on a soft flashlight, making sure that it didn't attract attention. Grabbing hold of a hatch on the ground, she pulled on it, opening up the pathway to the storeroom. She headed straight to the power relays and removed her backpack.

Opening up the bag, she produced a device that looked like a voltmeter, which she quickly attached to the main power circuitry. Using the power device, she began producing a series of pings through the power relays, conveying a message similar to what Bob had done.

--

Bob was back at the control cabinet of the auxiliary control chamber, Matrix was off tossing another viral soldier into a storage closet. They were forced to retain prisoners after being discovered, but they knew they couldn't keep it up for long. The large sprite called out to Bob, 'Do you even know how Dot is going to respond?'

He shrugged, 'If she does anything with the power systems in Kits or Baudway, we'll know about it. She would know that at the very least.' He waited another while, trying to pick up on any anomaly. Suddenly, he saw the a faint blinking of the power lines for the Diner, someone was sending a message back. 'Glitch, record.' Glitch recorded the pattern and translated it. After some time a very long and detailed message appeared, _**It is my favorite picture. At exactly 505…**_

Bob kept reading through the message. 'This looks like a plan. A precisely scheduled plan at that.'

'You know Dot. What did she mean by, _It's my favorite picture?_'

Revealing a goofy grin, Bob explained, 'It's a response to my message. Our first kiss was right after the system crash…and Phong was quick with the camera.' He kept reading the plan, until the message started repeating itself. 'Well I wasn't expecting that…'

Matrix took his turn to read the plan, it also confusing him. 'They have back-up? Maybe the Guardians got through the portal lock.'

Bob turned to his keytool, 'System scan.' Glitch did a sweep and returned the results. The Guardians expression furrowed in confusion. 'Something entered Mainframe all right, but it wasn't the Guardians. I don't recognize these energy readings.'

'If this is Dot's plan, we had better do our part.'

'Right, it is almost time. When we pull the switch, you make your way to the War Room; I'll get outside and to the Diner. Hopefully we'll shock-watch things along the way.'

They headed to the central core chamber, making sure they can make their escape when needed. Watching the countdown, Bob took hold of the massive circuit switch. Matrix also grabbed hold of it, and together they pulled down on it, shutting off all power to the Principle Office. Slowly, the chamber began to darken, and the power loss spread as a radial from there. Matrix was able to see in the dark from his fake eye, and Bob used Glitch as a flashlight. Matrix nodded to Bob, saying, 'I'll see you when this is over.'

Returning the motion to his friend, Bob said, 'Good luck.' The two parted ways.

--

In the War Room, Megabyte sat in an elaborate chair, modeled after the old one from long ago. Making these little contributions to a healthy Principle Office was everything he had hoped for _Megaframe,_ but the destruction in the last viral war made his victory taste slightly bitter. Now he could hunt down his foes with ease, and he enjoyed making them squirm.

Still, he wanted to keep a certain amount of pressure on them, and he received a tactical report from Lieutenant Chancey. 'We were able to retrieve a profile of the ship that entered Mainframe.' He showed an image of the Skidbladnir. 'It doesn't match any known ship design.'

Megabyte looked over the image, realizing that it had markings he had seen before. 'Oh, well look at that. My enemies were always the lucky ones.' He repositioned himself in his chair, slowly standing up. 'This will only make my hunt more rewarding at the end.' As he stood up, the lights and power to the war room completely shut down. Taking a look around his now darkened command center, Megabyte inexplicably started to chuckle. 'Yes…you have now forced my hand, Miss Matrix. So far I have left you to lead your "rebellion," but now you will be the one looking through a glass darkly.'

Megabyte walked to the exit and issued a command, 'Prepare my forces. Double the guard rounds throughout the system. Lock the doors once I've left and allow no one in. Delete anyone who tries.' The virus entered the hallway, and immediately his form changed into a regular binome viral. Though his form had changed, he looked down the hall with the same confident grin that dominated his virus form. He then got himself into character, and he joined with a passing patrol.

--

Outside the Principle Office, the sub-sphere at the top lost its support and retracted into the main building. The power conduits grew dark from the lack of energy flowing through them, and the entire building became silent.

--

After spending several nanos explaining his story, Joel finished his story. He waited for questions from the council, which began from Turbo. 'And this system in the alternate network you described…"Lyoko" has the capability to bypass this system lockdown. How are they capable of this?'

Not wanting to give the full, blunt explanation, Joel took some time to create an answer, 'From where they are from, they are actually integrated with their systems functions, giving them functions farther than any sprite in this net. With Lyoko being a supercomputer itself, they are capable of amazing things.'

Turbo nodded, 'And as of now you are the only one capable of breaching through the lockdown, because Vostro is connected with a sprite still at Lyoko.'

'Yes. I believe that Xana targeted me because he was aware that I could lead the Lyoko Warriors here, to the net. They are the only ones who can disrupt his plans.'

The same female Guardian asked him, 'And what does this "Xana" plan to do?'

A blank expression crossed Joels face, eventually leading him to shrug his shoulders and raise his hands in an "I don't know" manner.

Breaking out a sigh, Turbo excused the other Guardians and invited Joel to come with him. Taking him into his personal office, he sat Joel down and next to a screen. He said softly, 'What you are about to see is classified beyond every sub-command, only the command prompts within the Guardian leadership know about it.' He revealed an image taken by a ship investigating a destroyed system. Mangled chunks of debris was scattered everywhere. Joel was caught up in the image; a massive tear remained in the midst of the debris, clearly from a devastating explosion. From the debris Joel could also pick out the destroyed hulk of an attack ship, obviously of Guardian design. Turbo provided an explanation and commentary, 'Shortly after the systems started closing off, rumors began circulating about a malevolent force that was appearing in cyberspace. There was one system that was able to get out a transmission before they went completely down.'

An video recording was brought up. A harried sprite with some injury to his face was speaking frantically. _'The virus was only a class one. We were about to do a final containment when it upgraded into a class two with a zip file capability. It's infected the modem! Send help, we need help…' _The transmission suddenly cut out.

The older Guardian said, 'That was the last thing we got from that system before it went meltdown shortly after.'

'You mean that message was from the now destroyed system?' Joel's voice slightly increased in pitch.

Turbo gravely nodded, 'There seems to be a pattern. A virus has an upgrade, and several seconds later the system it infected completely fragments.' He produced a list. 'So far 15 systems have been destroyed. Among them Sentri-five, Vantage, and Asus Prime. All advanced systems.'

As Turbo said Asus Prime, Joel had a noticeable reaction to it, jumping slightly in his chair. Shaken up, the younger Guardian rested his elbows on Turbo's desk and set his chin on the back of his hands. Turbo placed a hand on Joel's shoulder, a light attempt at getting him back on track. Joels eyes darted back and forth, as though he was processing all the information he was given. Hesitantly, he suggested, 'And all this has happened to Mainframe.'

'It was the first system with all these signs, but so far it is still processing.' Joel returned to his passive expression, and Turbo continued, 'If you're right, Megabyte is the crux of this whole series of events. I would like to help Mainframe, but our forces are stretched thin with every other system. If you could help us access certain systems for us, we might be able to eliminate the threat. Hopefully we can stop this ship before it gets too far.'

Taking his head off his hands, Joel looked at Turbo. 'You mean it is a ship? Have you encountered it?'

Turbo activated another image. 'One of our fleets had an altercation with it.' He brought up a series of images that depicted an obscenely large ship. 'This is from one of the only flight recorders that survived the battle. It appears to be the enemy's insignia.' The image showed a part of the ship, which had the Eye of Xana marked on it. 'We've never seen it before.'

Joel gravely said, 'I have.'

**Authors Commentary**

Obviously the story is moving along much more quickly.

Normally I have avoided reading crossovers myself because everyone meets each other all within the first chapter. There is also usually a "mysterious portal" that links the two, but how else am I supposed to get them together? From my perspective, the actual writing in this story could be much better, but I think I make up for it by having this story very plot-heavy.

Teaser for the next chapter-

_Dot provokes a conflict with the viral army to draw attention away from other operations. Bob reunites with her, bringing with him a surprise guest. Odd is put to good use and he meets Matrix for the first time…_


	7. War Against the Infection

**Authors Commentary**

I don't really have anything to add for this chapter. Just the regular thanks to my brother.

* * *

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 6: War Against the Infection

The transport came upon its destination, a grungy sewer near the base of the principle office. Slowly landing, the access hatch opened up and Odd stepped out, soon followed by AndrAIa. The hatch closed shut behind them, they were the only ones here. AndrAIa strapped a commando vest to Odd, cinching down all the straps so that it was a snug fit. AndrAIa finished with the suit-up and packed the default command into the front pocket.

A little impatient, Odd complained while AndrAIa was putting on other items, 'Do I really need all this? I'm not the one to prepare for things…just look at my test scores.'

The female sprite grinned as she put a headset on him, 'Dot was right, you do remind me of Enzo. Both of them.' She stepped back a little bit. 'We kinda want you to do better at this then on your school work.' Opening the heavy doors, she led Odd into the sewer tunnel, eventually coming to an elevator door. Opening the door, she pointed up, 'This will lead to an emergency exit right at the war room, and nowhere else.' She jokingly nudged his arm. 'It'll be impossible to get lost, even for someone with your test scores.'

Cynically, Odd nodded to her comment. 'Okay, we're on sub-level 15, so that means fifteen levels to reach the first main floor of the Principle Office, and then 28 floors to the war room. That means I got…a lot of climbing ahead.' He shrugged, 'No sweat.'

She hadn't ever heard that term before. 'Sweat? What is that?'

Struggling for words, he mumbled out, 'Sweat…you know…where your skin…uh…gets watery.' Trying not to sound stupid, he explained, 'I meant I shouldn't have any problems.' He got in the elevator shaft and loosened up for his climb.

AndrAIa said, 'You ready to go?'

'Yes ma'am.'

She shook her head, 'Please, don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old.'

Odd smiled, 'Trust me, you are definitely not old.' In reflex, his eyes checked out her figure, and he didn't catch himself in time. His gaze returning to her face, she had watched the entire thing. Embarrassed and attempting to salvage his dignity, he gave her an awkward smile, complete with a goofy short laugh.

She lowered her eyes slightly and gave him a warm smile. She knew what she was good at: combat, strategy and technology, but she was also aware that people would watch her enter a room.

Mentally forcing himself to keep his cool but failing at it, Odd kept his smile but slowly returned to his task at hand. 'I'll go now.' He dug his claws into the surface and began the climb up the shaft.

AndrAIa called out after him, 'Wait! Before you get too far. When Matrix pulls his gun on you, he won't shoot you unless he thinks you're hostile.'

From a few meters up the shaft Odd's voice echoed down with an air of panic, 'What do you mean w_hen_ he pulls his gun on me?'

Speaking back up the shaft, AndrAIa explained, 'Just remain cool, like you did a nano ago. Tell him what I told you on the trip over here.'

'Uh…Okay.' He continued his climb and he could hear AndrAIa's footsteps walking away. Odd wacked himself in the head a few times while quietly saying, 'Stupid…stupid…stupid.' Continuing to talk to himself while climbing, he said, 'It's the outfit. Yeah…I'll blame it on that.' He shook his head. 'Real smooth buddy. Real smooth.'

Jeremie's voice came on in his head, 'What's wrong.'

Without stopping his ascension, Odd asked, 'How long have you been listening?'

'I just patched you in. I've been working three different directions lately.'

'Good.'

'Why?'

'Never-mind, it just wasn't my proudest moment.' Odd looked up, he was having a hard time seeing, being so far away from any light source. He turned on the flashlight that was mounted on his headset. 'So Einstein, what time is it there?'

'10:30 at night. Oh…I need to be in my room. What time is it over there?' Jeremie looked at his watch, tapping the face lightly.

'You know what, I'm not entirely sure. I'm guessing mid-day, but I'm not even sure they use the same time cycles.'

'Well Odd, I'm still working on getting an accurate schematic to where you are. How far away from your destination are you?'

'I don't know, half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes.'

'I'll be gone for about 20 minutes, so I can get to my room, okay. Then I'll keep you company from there.'

'I'll still be here.'

--

After the power had gone out, little Enzo was kept in his cell only by the guard and his weapon. The emergency lights were on in the cell block, but only barely kept it illuminated. The guard was repeatedly making comments through his radio, trying to keep aware of the situation. Enzo could hear the responses, and he could only get more excited. He paid attention to the mannerisms of the guard, waiting for his chance.

Once the guard made another turn away from him, Enzo dashed across the cell block, running to where his dad was, crashing into the cage and breaking it on the ground. The noise attracted the attention of the guard, who immediately moved around to see the commotion. Enzo was still in the opposite cell and the guard kept his weapon on the little sprite.

Enzo had his hands raised, and the guard barked out, 'What did you do?' not noticing the broken null cage. Suddenly, Welman slithered up the guard and onto his hand, biting it and sucking energy from him in a very painful manner. The guard dropped the gun and yelped in pain. Considering the guard was a binome, Enzo was about the same size and he dashed at him, colliding in an ungraceful manner, but the guard slammed against the wall hard and Enzo rolled off to the right. Glancing at the fallen guard, he saw that the impact knocked him unconscious.

A second guard looked inside and Enzo did the same thing as before, except this guard stumbled back and threw him to the ground. Enzo scrambled around, looking for any sort of weapon, finding a file-lock staff just out of reach. The guard held his rifle to Enzo, 'This is as far as you go.'

Welman serpentine towards him, stood partially up and formed from his gelatinous body a flattened peak to resemble a head. 'Get away from my son.'

This distracted the guard briefly, allowing Enzo to grab the file-lock staff and hit the guard with it, freezing him in place. He took a deep breath after that adventure and then got back up.

There was only one other person in the cell block, only because Megabyte didn't want to infect him. Mike the TV looked around his little cell: nervous, excited and panicked all at the same time. Eventually he overcame his emotional overload and exclaimed, 'I'm free! Yes, finally.' He suddenly threw himself on the ground and kissed it. Getting back up, his eyes darted back and forth down the hallway. 'Oh…happy times. I'm a free bird.' His voice suddenly dropped in pitch. 'That reminds me, I owe Leonard money.' He continued to speak in a randomized fashion.

Welman maneuvered himself up and on Enzo's shoulder. Knowing that there were more virals around, Enzo said to Mike, 'We have to get out of here, find Bob and Dot. If you want to come with me, you'd better stay quiet.'

Chattering up a storm, Mike said, 'Oh don't worry,' He took an action hero stance with his back to the wall and a non-existent gun in his hand, as though he was watching out for enemies. He turned his back to Enzo and said with a melodramatic voice, 'I'll be as a leaf blowing in the wind…as a whisper in the dark. I'm like that one person from that one show, I'm invisible. I'm everywhere…and nowhere at the same time. It'll be as though you have a null on your back. Oh wait, you do.' He turned back around and saw that Enzo had gotten fed up with his talking and just left him. His face dropping, Mike said nervously, 'Enzo…'

Around the corner, Enzo said to himself sarcastically, 'And I actually wondered why they didn't infect him.'

Still unsure of where he went, Mike began tip-toeing to the nearest hallway junction. A random ventilation noise scared him and he ran off in another direction screaming.

--

A maintenance hatch on the floor opened up; Bobs hand grabbed the edge and he climbed out from it. Trying to remain careful, he was swift but cautious in moving through the corridors. Skidding around a corner, Bob was making his way to the outside, going the most direct route possible. As he turned another corner, he heard a youthful voice underneath him call out in surprise, 'Bob!' and he suddenly crashed into little Enzo who was making the same turn. The little guy's height made it difficult for Bob to see and stop himself in time and they ran right into each other.

Coming to a stop, Enzo ended up practically sitting on him and began talking non-stop, 'Bob! It's been crazy! Viral patrols left and right and I was a prisoner for three full seconds and the power has been turned off and I'm running around the Principle Office blind and then I ran into you!' He stopped to take a breath and Bob politely pushed him off.

Standing up, Bob dusted himself off and told Enzo, 'I'm heading straight for Dot, you have to stay close to me, okay?'

Saluting, Enzo said, 'Yes sir, Bob.'

Bob led the way, going down another series of corridors. He turned to look at Enzo without breaking stride, 'She is going to be happy to know you're okay.'

'About as okay as possible. Megabyte took my icon.' He pointed to his hat, which was missing his icon.

Groaning in frustration, Bob said, 'If he didn't infect you immediately, then he is playing games.' He turned his head forward, 'We'll just have to deal with Megabyte when the time comes.'

--

Odd made it past a sign saying, _floor 22. _He breathed a sigh of relief. 'Almost there.'

Jeremie asked, 'How are you doing? Tired?'

'Alright, I guess. This is kinda different then what I'm used to.'

'How so?'

Odd took a moment think, then to explained it to Jeremie he said, 'Well… it's like this.' He started to beat-box the theme to Mission: Impossible.

'Uh…okay.' Jeremie remarked dryly.

'And they had to give me the technical job.'

'Don't worry, she gave you a list and I took notes on her instructions, I'll help you out.'

'With my luck, I'll bring up the blue screen of death. Here that'll probably wipe out all existence.' Odd finally hit the bottom of the elevator, and he pulled out a device from his vest to open up the hatch underneath the cart. He repositioned himself within the shaft, pressing his back against the wall and his feet horizontal against the other side, allowing him to use his hands. Eventually he was inside the cart and he took a position to crack the doors open. Glancing inside the war room, he realized that the guards inside probably had no clue that this door existed; it was built to match the wall design. He whispered to Jeremie, 'How well are your sensors now? Can you tell me how many are in there?'

'It's a pretty small room. And yes, I've managed to bring up the floor plan. The Skid's sensors had to be adjusted. It looks like about six of those "binomes" are inside. I don't know what weapons they have.'

'Doesn't matter, I 'm doing this even if they are mini-terminators.' He took a step back, 'No use in being subtle.' He kicked the door open, making sure to get everyone's attention. Racing out on all fours, he pounced on the closest guard, knocking them both into a console. Seeing that the binome was unconscious, he jumped off and made a run around the room, with the other guards opening fire. He got his speed up and he changed his momentum to run along the wall. With the different angle, he jumped off and landed on another guard, then quickly bounding to the next closest. His momentum upon impact made them both roll around with legs and arms flying every direction. As the binome got his bearings again, Odd grabbed and flung him across the room and into another guard.

Seeing a blaster shot fly past his face, he ducked down behind a console, waiting just a moment to resume his attack. Over other noises, he heard a guard say, 'I'm calling in back-up.'

Not wanting more problems, Odd said to himself, 'No time for a break.' He planted his foot on top of the console and he made a dive towards the last two guards. He took care of the closer one, laying him out with a punch to the face, but the other one made a move for the door. To keep him from calling others, Odd reluctantly took aim and fired a volley of laser arrows at him. One arrow hit him in the back, and he collapsed to the ground with a painful groan. Odd quickly scrambled to his side, the binome was on the ground, his body flickering from a loss of energy. Surprisingly scared, Odd asked Jeremie, 'What's happening to him!?'

Thinking quickly, Jeremie brought up the information he got from Joel's scan. 'Let's see if I can figure anything out from Joel's programming "biology." I hope it's similar to these binomes.' He looked over the scan, hoping to figure out any sort of repair program to use. 'Odd, I don't think there is anything you can do. His code was compromised by your arrow. They probably have some type of hospital for these things, but I have no idea of any "first-aid" you can do.'

Shaken a little, Odd turned his attention to other things. He pulled out an information pad, which showed the layout of the war room. He followed the instructions left by Dot and he started flipping switches, despite main power being off-line the subsidiary power allowed him to unlock the doors to the war room, letting Matrix enter when he got there. Quietly gathering the unconscious guards, he pulled them into a corner, then activated a containment device he was equipped with to keep them from doing anything when they regained consciousness. With a serious look, he said, 'I guess it wasn't a bad idea to give me all this stuff.'

Sensing something was wrong, Jeremie asked, 'Odd, are you okay? You sound like you're taking this seriously. That's not you.'

Having an opportunity to vent, Odd explained, 'The thing is…I've talked with Joel and Dot and some of the soldiers at that base, and…they are real people, if you know what I mean. In Lyoko and the replikas, we could fight down Xana's creatures and no one got hurt. Here…' He looked at the injured viral, 'I feel like I'm doing something bad.'

* * *

Other Stories

In an undisclosed location, various virals were unloading a large collection of supplies into it. Many of the supplies appeared to be weapons of military grade, but it also had a variety of random equipment. Access consoles, video cameras, jet-golf clubs, light bulbs, "Welcome to Mainframe" souvenirs, movie files, movie players, pianos, private photo albums, alarm clocks, suitcases, pong sports equipment, offices desks, office chairs and MP3 files. There was no common thread for what was stored here. In the background, a penguin was walking around with a red rubber glove on its head.

Deep inside the building, underground and in another room with miscellaneous items, Phong was chained up to the wall. While there was no appearance of outright torture, he appeared very feeble and mistreated. The ominous sounds of footsteps could be heard as a viral squadron appeared. One from the group stepped forward, then suddenly morphed into Megabyte. The large virus got in the old sprites face, and said with no sign of gentleness, 'There is an unusual group of sprites that have arrived in Mainframe. I know they are not friendly to me, but how would Miss Matrix gain such allies when the system is locked down? Do you know anything about Lyoko?'

If Phong had any knowledge of what Megabyte talked about, he didn't show it or even look at the virus. Angry, Megabyte sadistically placed the point of his claw underneath Phongs chin, forcing him to raise his head to relieve the pressure. Taking his time to make eye contact, Phong silently shook his head that he wasn't going to talk to him at all.

Megabyte removed his claw, but then backhanded Phong across the face. 'Fine, remain there while your dearest friends are deleted. You will hang there…until you erase.' Sternly, Megabyte turned around and left the room. Just as he crossed the threshold of the doorway, he returned to his viral officer appearance and continued on.

Unable to move due to his restraints, Phong silently hung his head. After some time of contemplation and with a ring of familiarity, Phong murmured, 'Lyoko…'

--

Matrix pressed his back against the wall, waiting for his chance. Being able to see in the dark from his fake eye, he could read the movements of the guard patrols better than anyone. The entrance to the war room was right next to them, and he was hoping that his large form could stay hidden in the shadows. He moved silently and low to the ground, edging his way to the currently unaware guards. Just as he got upon them, a guard moved in his direction to take a drink from a flask, and ran into him. Dropping his drink, he turned his flashlight upon Matrix, who was now exposed to them. With no hope of a complete surprise, he just slammed straight through them, using brute strength to knock them down. Sensing a guard behind him was aiming his weapon, Matrix quickly drew his gun and spun around, grabbing hold of the guards weapon and placing his barrel in the binome's eye.

Debating on pulling the trigger, he forced himself to calm down and he pistol-whipped the guard in the head. Looking at the war room entrance, he saw that the door light was green, meaning it was unlocked. Not one to blindly enter a room, he leaned against the frame, and then pressed the button to open the door. Approaching the entrance carefully, Matrix swung around, gun in hand, and immediately placed a target reticule on Odd's forehead.

Going cross-eyed as though to see the target on his head, Odd put his arms out in front of him. He whimpered lightly, 'Uncle.'

Keeping a gruff and serious demeanor, Matrix asked, 'Who are you?' Odd stammered for a minute, trying to get his thoughts in order. Impatient, Matrix said, 'What…you don't know?'

With a sudden outburst, Odd exclaimed, 'I can't think when someone has a gun to my head!' He panted heavily, then explained, 'My name is Odd. I'm the operative you're supposed to know about. Dot sent me…' Trying to remember what else he was supposed to say, he added, 'I have a message from A…And…' He hit himself in the head, trying to remember her name. Tentatively, he said, 'Andrea?'

Correcting him, Matrix said, 'AndrAIa?'

'Yeah!' He excitedly pointed at him, 'She told me to tell you…'

Matrix interrupted him, 'It's okay, I believe you are who you say you are.' Odd was stunned at his sudden reversal and trust. Explaining, the large sprite said, 'You don't have viral colors so you're not infected. And I know Megabyte…there is no way he could behave so 8-bit.'

Still stunned, Odd wasn't sure what Matrix meant by the comment, but his ego deflated a little anyway. 'Oh.' He could hear Jeremie laughing hysterically on the other side.

--

A personnel transport made its way to the main level, arriving in the midst of a large park, with ponds, trees and foliage. Coming to a stop, several more transports lined up behind the first, until it ceased to be personnel and the vehicles became war machines. CPU police fighters arrived next, complimenting a large army. From the first transport Dot and Yumi emerged, accompanied by a small squad of CPU soldiers. From a second transport emerged Mouse, Aelita and Hack and Slash, with their own squadron. From a third transport Ulrich emerged with even more soldiers. Dot had decided to implement the vast majority of their forces for this project. Additional transports arrived and they began their work.

With her organizer in hand, Dot continued to order everyone about. She was setting up a battlefield, placing strategic pill boxes, turrets and strongholds. To get a good look over the field, Aelita took to the skies on her wings, but still remained low enough to avoid attention. No one among the Mainframe forces knew she could do that, and many heads were turned in her direction. Mouse and Dot stood side by side, looking at the silhouette of an angel flying around them. Turning to Dot, Mouse said, 'I suddenly have the feeling that luck is on our side.'

Yumi approached them as Dot replied, 'I'd have to agree.' She turned to wait for what Yumi wanted to say.

She reported, 'I think we know our position in all of this, at least from the Lyoko side.'

To Dot's other side, Johnny approached her, holding a rifle on his shoulder. Saluting, he said, 'Miss Matrix, all squadrons report ready.'

'Okay, thank you. All we do now is wait for Bob to arrive. Hopefully we aren't spotted before that happens.'

Yumi asked, 'So, who is Bob?'

Before Dot could form a response, Mouse remarked callously, 'He's Dot's favorite Guardian.' Dot gave her an annoyed look, while the hacker returned a confident smile.

It didn't take much for Yumi to understand what was meant. After an awkward moment looking at Dot and Mouse silently exchanging insults, Yumi broke the silence by asking, 'So...Bob is a Guardian. Like Joel?'

Dot turned away from Mouse and said, 'Yes. He'll be wearing the same uniform.'

'And Odd, he is inside the Principle Office with…someone named Matrix?' After Dot nodded, Yumi continued to ask, 'What is his…uh…format?' She was struggling to keep up with their terminology.

Dot answered, 'He is a Guardian, like Bob and Joel. But he does things his own way. He's my brother, so you'll probably recognize him when you see him.'

Yumi nodded, but something was still bothering her and she wanted an honest answer, 'How many people do we have here?'

Looking at Yumi, Dot said, 'Right now, in Floating Point, we have five hundred and six.'

'And how many do they have?'

Realizing what direction she was going, Dot said, 'We're not sure. Probably a few thousand.' Seeing Yumi's face, she knew what she was thinking, and she said to bring up her confidence, 'I wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't come here. You and your teammates make up the difference. And I'm grateful for that.' She then added, 'Assuming Odd does his job, we will have the advantage.'

A squadron leader approached Dot and told her, 'We are having trouble linking up power for rail gun gamma.'

She quickly moved to follow him to the gun. 'I think we've had problems with this one in the past. It's all we have; we can't replace it so someone needs to make it work.'

Mouse moved to the side and opened the curved panel, 'I got it.'

--

A short time later, to their surprise, a final transport vehicle arrived on the spot. AndrAIa quickly got out from the driver side door, 'Dot, you are not going to believe who I found.' From behind her, Bob emerged from the vehicle.

He said with his normal smoothness, 'Hi Dot.'

'Bob!' Dot ran to meet him.

Just before she got to his side, Bob said, 'I don't think I'm the one she was referring to.' He stepped to the side as little Enzo got out.

Her legs started to fail her once she saw her little brother. She went to one knee so she could be at his height and gave him a big hug. A tear rolled down her face and she was laughing as much as she was crying. 'Oh Enzo, I'm so glad you're safe.' She held him for a long moment, then backed away and held his face in her hands. She saw that his icon was missing and she looked into his eyes. 'Where is your icon?'

His face crumpling into a disgusted look, Enzo explained, 'Megabreath took it.'

She nodded, her mind racing with everything she needed to do, 'Okay…okay. Well we plan on capturing Megabyte anyway. Once we do that, we should be able to get your icon back.' She looked at him again, then grabbed him into another hug. 'Oh, I was so worried. Do you feel alright, are you hungry?'

Enzo blushed in embarrassment and annoyance, 'I'm fine. Come on Sis, not in front of everyone.'

Standing up, she wiped the tears from her face and laughed. She was happy, but she also knew that she had a job to do. She gave Enzo a read-only file card. 'This is the location of our safe-house. I want you to stay low and out of sight and get there as soon as you can.' She looked to the side, 'Hack! Slash!'

Only a short distance away, they both scooted to her side within a few nanos. They both saluted and Hack said, 'Yes sir.' Slash corrected him, 'You don't call her "sir." You call her "ma'am."' Hack argued back, 'No, she is our boss and military tradition states that we call her "sir!"' When Slash had nothing to say back, Hack looked at Dot and said politely, '…Ma'am.'

Dot ignored their babbling and said, 'I want you to follow Enzo back to the bunker. You need to stay out of sight so virals can't follow you back. Understand?'

Hack said, 'Yes sir,' at the same time Slash said, 'Yes ma'am.' Hack shot an angry look at his counterpart, which made Slash catch his mistake and he cowered away, saying, 'Sorry…I forgot.'

Dot pushed Enzo next to them, which he fought against, 'Come on, I don't want to sit on my bitmap for this. I want to be with you.'

With a firm determination, Dot shook her head "No." She added, 'I can't do this if you're beside me. Now go.'

Shoulders hunched forward and sulking as he has done many times in the past, Enzo reluctantly went with Hack and Slash into the lower levels.

With Enzo in a safer location, Dot went back to the task at hand. She brought up several files on her organizer, which she quickly went to work on lining up the sequence she wanted. Briefly raising her eyes, she saw Bob pleasantly smiling at her. She tried to go back to her work, but Bob's constant grin sidetracked her. She asked hesitantly, 'What?'

His smile grew larger until he said, 'Oh…just every memory of you I have is you working on some sort of plan.' Growing more serious, but keeping the large smile, he said, 'I wouldn't be much of the hero type if it wasn't for your plans.'

Returning a coy smile in his direction, Dot said, 'That's funny, my plans are built around you being the hero type. They'd fall apart if you weren't in them.' Taking a moment to explain her intentions to Bob, she said, 'I'm going to invite Megabyte to a party here in Floating Point. I need you to make sure that this doesn't spill over into Kits, I want to avoid the residential sectors.' She got the sequence of events in the order she liked them and she activated it.

Suddenly, two large flares shot into the sky, bright enough and high enough that anyone in Mainframe could see it. A loudspeaker emerged from one of the vehicles and played a recording Dot made earlier. The words echoed far past the park and into all sectors of Mainframe. 'Megabyte, pay attention. You've invaded our home, and we backed down. You infected our friends, and we backed away. You are responsible for countless innocents who have been deleted by your cause. We will not back down anymore. The line is drawn here! Your hunt is here! If you want us, come and infect us.'

A second series of flares shot up into the sky. They reached different altitudes before stopping at certain points. The resulting line-up of flares eventually created a massive, glowing arrow pointing to their location. Off in the distance they could hear the whine of the ABC's moving to the sector.

Watching everything happen, Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita stood side by side, the glow reflecting off their faces. Leaning over to the other two, Ulrich said, 'She sure isn't one for subtlety. We've pretty much just ran into the middle of a firing squad and said, "Shoot me!"' He waved his hands like he was crazy.

Aelita shrugged, 'Just remember, this is really to give Odd a chance to do his thing.'

Yumi remarked sarcastically, 'It sounded like a good idea on paper.'

The approach of ABC's and other military vehicles brought them to seriousness. Ulrich unsheathed his swords and Yumi handled her fans. They all spread out and prepared to engage the coming virals.

Dot alerted her forces and took her position at a specially formed command bunker. Using short range radios, she ordered the artillery turrets to open fire. She turned to Bob and said, 'I knew that if we made an open challenge, there would be only one fight. We don't have the resources for another one of these.'

Bob held Glitch up, 'Then we will make it count.'

* * *

Other Voices

A portal opened in a system that was built upon seven islands, arraigned symmetrically with one island in the center with the Principle Office. Having a familiar smoky color, the portal soon cleaned up and a small Guardian task force entered through the portal before it closed. Leading in the primary ship, Joel quickly arranged the system scan and they located the viral threat.

The virus was in the shape of a velociraptor. Deploying a viral SWAT teams, they used expanding pikes that interwove a solid energy net to wrap around the virus. Roaring in anger, the virus rose to its full height, which towered over the SWAT members roping it down. Flinging its tail, it slammed against one of the soldiers and allowing it to gain additional movement. It was trying to build up strength to escape, but was kept in check and forced flat against the ground by the expert team. Glaring at Joel, he saw the virus' eyes flicker slightly, revealing the eye of Xana in its pupils. Joel turned to the local leadership of that system, asking the command dot com, 'What was the virus before the upgrade?'

'About this tall.' The older sprite put his hand at his knees to demonstrate. He then shook Joels hand, 'Thank you so much for coming. You have no idea what it is like to be cut off from the net.'

Not liking to deliver bad news, Joel explained, 'We have a way of penetrating the lockdown, but once we leave you will still not have internet access.' Visually seeing the hope in the sprites eyes fade away, Joel added, 'The entire resources of the Supercomputer and the Guardian Collective are working on this. I promise you won't be abandoned.'

Some distance from the two, a bizarre voice called out to them, 'Daemon was but a foreshadow! The true end of the net is at hand!' Looking over, they saw a very old sprite calling to them, complete with a short, white beard and shaggy hair. The sprite continued as he approached them, 'The entire war…only a distraction. The real threat has shown its face.'

The command dot com chuckled and led Joel away. 'That's just the random old codger. He used to be an operator in the old Apple II OS. Been around for hours. Time hasn't been good to his clock-speed.'

Joel was ready to regroup with the SWAT team when the old sprite yelled out, 'The only hope we have is Lyoko!'

That certainly caught his attention. Turning to the command dot com, Joel said, 'I'll catch up in a nano.' He approached the random sprite alone and while keeping his distance asked, 'What do you know about Lyoko?'

While before he had a panicked expression, the old sprite suddenly changed into a relatively calm and relaxed manner, 'It is the place where users can meet their creations.'

Curious but not trusting him, Joel asked authoritatively, 'Who are you?'

Knowing his bizarre behavior hasn't helped his intentions, he said, 'I am not actually this sprite. I am merely using his form to communicate with you.'

Repeating himself with some annoyance, Joel said, 'Again, who are you?'

'You could say that I started all of this.' The sprite seemed playful and certainly not serious.

Joel took a step closer, 'You are wasting my time. If you do not give me some information, I will have you arrested and file locked.' He shot out a very serious look.

Clearly not intimidated by his Guardian format, the sprite looked at him condescendingly. 'Do you really think that you can give me orders? If you knew who I am, you would not speak to me in that manner.' He straightened up, 'Now…I want an apology.' He crossed his arms, waiting for it.

Mimicking his stance, Joel retorted, 'If I knew who you were, I wouldn't be asking the question in the first place.' They glared at each other for a significant amount of time, until Joel relented. He wanted to know what this sprite knew. 'Okay…I'm sorry.'

The man nodded kindly, 'That wasn't so hard.'

Indignant, Joel asked as politely as he could, 'I would like to know…who you are.' He waited a moment and then added, 'Please.'

Accepting his politeness, the man said with confidence, 'I am the creator of the Lyoko supercomputer…Jeremie would know me as Franz Hopper.'

Authors Commentary

If you are unfamiliar with Reboot, Mike the TV is a motor-mouth character who is an actual anthropomorphic TV, so most of his dialogue is quoted from pop culture and other things. I felt I needed to make some obscure references in order to do justice to his personality.

In a similar vein, I realized that even though I had placed humor in the story, one of the joys of ReBoot was the references they put into the story, subtle or not. So this chapter has a few of those. It would be a little pompous to explain every intentional one, so I'll just leave it for your enjoyment.

Teaser for the next chapter-

_The battle for Mainframe heats up, to the point where they come face to face against their enemy. As Odd and Matrix work to regain control of the Principle Office, Joel learns from Franz Hopper about the nature of Xana and what must be done. _


	8. Wait for the Dawn

Authors Commentary

I've had the outline for this story planned ahead, and I haven't varied from that outline much. I always intended for it to be epic, but I'd have to say about 25 percent of the story has grown on its own. The cliff-hanger for the last chapter was not the intended one until after I started writing the scene. But like most great ideas it evolved until it became an important explanation for a future sub-plot. My only hope is that it doesn't collapse under its own weight.

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 7: Wait for the Dawn

Floating Point Park was pie shaped like all the other system sectors. The entirety of the sector was devoted to recreation, and the majority of it was a simple park structure. On either side were the two primary residential sectors, especially Kits. It was the most aesthetically attractive part of Mainframe, and this made it a stern contrast to the open battle that had just erupted there. Dot had her command bunker situated about three-quarters distance to the edge of the system, to keep everything centered in the park. She also chose that location because they had several lakes and ponds surrounding them, so any ground troops would be forced into only three narrow areas.

Unfortunately Mainframe was not that large of a system, and the enemy forces were easily able to move past any attempt at a front line, making the entire area similar to a bar brawl. The bunker had multiple clear blast shields, so that Dot could maintain eye contact with most of her surroundings while keeping herself safe. Laser impacts rocked against the blast shields but they remained sturdy. Dot kept her organizer close to her, looking over the details of the set-up she made.

Bob was situated in her line of sight to the Principle Office, also working closely with Yumi.

Ulrich and AndrAIa were also partnered together to help aid their air forces.

Since Aelita had the most mobility, she acted as a messenger to relay tactics across the field and to the more remote sections; again because the battle did not have a distinct front line, only pockets of combat strewn everywhere.

Mouse was vital to the work of the command base, able to dictate immediate actions and reactions to the nearby troops while Dot focused on the overall strategy.

Weapons fire shot the head off a garden statue, but enough of it remained for Bob to use it as a shield. He looked across to a nearby barrier others had taken refuge at, including Yumi. He nodded in her direction, which set off a maneuver Dot had planned for them. Rolling out into the line of fire, Yumi threw her fans out towards a viral squadron that included an ABC. She deliberately avoided hitting them by only a small amount, making them slightly jumpy from near-miss.

While Yumi had them distracted, Bob rushed across the gap, firing energy pulses from Glitch in a high yield spread. Once they had turned their attention to Bob, Yumi rushed out and threw another fan blade their direction, moving closer to the group, but from a different direction. They continued in this manner of cover fire and advancement until they were on either side of the ABC. The enemy squad eventually formed themselves into a pyramid shape, to allow a more efficient method of firing at both of them. Yumi grabbed hold of a zero binome viral and threw him underhanded into the pyramid of one binomes, knocking all of them down.

Bob rushed in and had Glitch form a dome over them, containing them all at once for the time being. Yumi used her agility to quickly board the ABC and dispatch the binomes inside. Once that was done, she motioned for the squad she was with to get over there. The squad took the weapons of the virals and several got inside the stolen ABC, having just managed to add to their fleet.

As the commandeered ABC took off, Bob said to Yumi, 'Thanks.'

Thinking that the timing seemed weird, Yumi asked, 'What for?'

With a softer voice, like it was a personal thing, Bob explained, 'Most everyone has abandoned the idea of saving as many lives as we can here. You're the only one I've worked with lately that hasn't argued with me on that point.'

--

A large flying motorcycle roared into the air, deftly piloted by AndrAIa. Ulrich had teamed up with her and provided some defense with his swords while riding on the back. A squad of three ABC's came up behind them and tried to overwhelm Ulrich's defense. To lose their tail, AndrAIa did a hard bank up, the engine pulsating with a deafening sound. Ulrich held on tight as she maneuvered herself behind the ABC squad and shot down one of them.

With the wind rushing through his hair and barely able to hear himself over the wind, Ulrich said, 'This is a pretty nice bike.'

Yelling over her shoulder, AndrAIa said, 'Yeah, it's one of my favorites.' She continued to follow the remaining two, when one of them made a surprising bank similar to what she had done.

Watching as the vehicle fell behind her, Ulrich yelled out, 'I got it.' He leapt off the motorcycle and grabbed hold of the tank by plunging his swords into them. He held on as tight as he could, with the ABC making daring aerobatic moves high above the ground. As soon as the tank leveled off, he withdrew one sword only to implant it higher in the side, then repeating it as he climbed his way to the roof. He was briefed on the mechanics of the ABC's and now knew where its weak points were, and slashed at a rear cable that supplied power to the engines and the ABC began to fall. Intending to jump back onto AndrAIa's motorcycle, instead the tank violently shuttered and twisted in an unpredictable way, forcing Ulrich off earlier then he wanted. He was a long distance up in the air, and the wind slapped around him to emphasize his descending speed.

Just as he reach the height a lower rooftop, he felt his arm being tugged on and Aelita slowed his fall rapidly. Eventually holding his entire weight, she took him over to the nearby rooftop and set him down close to the edge. AndrAIa followed close behind and parked next to them. 'Are you okay?'

Ulrich took a brief glance over the side of the building and shuddered slightly. 'The ground was coming up faster then I liked.'

In a slight panic AndrAIa pointed out and said, 'Watch out!' as an ABC attempted to fire on them.

Aelita quickly focused and formed a barrier large enough to protect them and the blasts bounced harmlessly off. As the vehicle soared past them, it began to turn around for another pass. Aelita redirected her attention and released an energy field at the offending vehicle that quickly ended its attack against them. She waved at Ulrich and AndrAIa, 'Ready for round two!' She fell backwards off the ledge and resumed to engage the enemy in air.

At a loss for words about Aelita's power, AndrAIa asked Ulrich, 'How about it? You ready to go.' She noticed that Ulrich seemed slightly unnerved. 'Seriously, are you okay?'

Trying to ignore his problems, Ulrich jumped on the back of AndrAIas' motorcycle and said, 'I'm alright. Just keep moving fast and I'll be good.' The truth was that by keeping a fast pace he didn't have time to think about how high up they were.

With a hint of rejoicing in her voice, AndrAIa said, 'I'm okay with that.' She twisted the throttle forward and the motorcycle took off again.

Even though they seemed to be outnumbered three-to-one, Dot took note that the overall battle appeared to be balanced out. This was clearly a result of the help of the Lyoko team, as she saw Aelita handling her own perfectly fine in the air. Suddenly penetrating through the chaos of the battle, an explosion could be heard echoing out from a distant location. She looked to see a line of smoke billowing in the air, and she looked at her organizer to try and figure out what it was. As she estimated the approximate location of the explosion, she paused in anger, 'That came from G-Prime, possibly even the Bunker.'

Mouse looked over at her, knowing that they had just sent Enzo there. To reassure Dot, she said, 'He hasn't been gone that long, I wouldn't think he would have made it there that quickly.' She knew that Dot was now heavily distracted from the immediate battle, and they couldn't afford to have Dot to be so worried. She got up from her position and said, 'I'll go find him; bring him back…okay?'

Understanding what Mouse was trying to do, Dot agreed, 'Okay.'

Moving toward a transport vehicle, Mouse said, 'He's going to be okay, honey. You need to keep your focus on this fight. You said it yourself, we can't afford another one.' She quickly moved off at a fast speed toward G-Prime. Dot regained some focus and returned to managing the troop movements.

Emissary

In the island system, Joel diverted his time to talk with the sprite Franz Hopper had possessed. The squad he commanded was told to lock up the virus and deal with all the standard protocols. Joel secluded himself from everyone else because the knowledge of Lyoko was classified. In fact, Joel did not even tell Turbo the sprites from Lyoko were users. He took Hopper to the Expedition where he could talk without fear of eavesdrop. Joel sat down and Franz decided to remain standing. After some time of talking, Joel was getting frustrated with Hopper's refusal to give him a straight answer.

Seemingly refusing to sit down, Hopper leaned against the wall, 'You're impatient, you can't be like that. Such behavior will only lead you into mistakes.'

Not enjoying his aversion to giving a straight answer, he replied, 'People are erasing, I don't have time for a philosophy read-me file.'

'Well you're getting one. This is important.' Joel frustratingly sighed and looked around the room before returning his attention to Hopper who continued, 'The light and darkness co-exist; there is a balance. Light is an entity unto itself but darkness is only the absence of light. Eliminating darkness is a fool's dream, performed by those who believe that militant action is enough. But darkness can be contained and restricted.'

'You haven't answered my question.'

'You're right…I didn't.' Hopper gave the Guardian a look indicating that he was not going to.

'Fine.' He rested his finger against his temple, looking like he was getting a headache. 'What does Xana want with the net? Maybe we can cut him off.'

'Xana is destroying the systems because he is gathering the operating cores, ripping them from their Principle Office. He is an adaptive multi-agent program, meaning he can divide himself and his work.'

Joel leaned forward on the table, 'I thought Xana was an advanced virus, but you're saying he isn't?'

Hopper lowered his eyes, 'Not originally, not the way he was intended. He added viral characteristics to himself when it suits his purposes.'

Paying attention to Hopper's mannerisms, Joel could see that he felt shame and regret. But he was also curious about Xana's format, 'What was his original function?'

'He was to operate and interact with communications around the user world. Lyoko was his test bed, as well as the fail-safe. If we had him hardwired into the prototype supercomputer there would be no way to end the process besides frying the motherboard. So we created the virtual world and the towers to separate him from the user operations.'

'He has upgraded a lot from his original function.'

Hopper approached the table to explain, 'Xana doesn't upgrade, he evolves by building his own code from his surroundings. On Lyoko, he can use the immense processing power of the towers. I believe he is using the system cores he has taken to build an autonomous tower. This would allow him the same functions of Lyoko without the failsafe. My daughter won't be able to shut it down.'

Joe stood up, 'Your daughter?' He remembered the events on Lyoko and who shut down the tower. Understanding what Hopper meant, he murmured, 'Aelita!'

'If he gets to your Supercomputer, he will have enough to finish his designs.'

'The only reason he would wait is to build his army in the net. But why are you telling me about this? Jeremie has control of the Lyoko supercomputer; he can do more than I can.'

'Jeremie is not good enough yet. He is unaware of what Lyoko can really accomplish. But you are the prophet. You've been to Lyoko, you know who we are. But you're from the net. You can interact between both worlds. This is dependant on your actions.'

Joel was confused, 'Why? I'm just a soldier; I don't have any command prompts.'

Franz suddenly became authoritative, 'You are a Guardian! Your programming was written for this purpose, "To Mend and Defend" and to unite the net.'

Joel was snapped into line, but cautiously asked, 'How are you so sure?'

Franz ignored the question, 'Xana has called upon hundreds of viruses to help achieve his plans. He is powerful, but he isn't…what is it you say…basic. If you are to challenge him you must gather the Guardian forces and work with Jeremie and everyone else. Don't worry; the dawn will come, in its own due time.' He handed him a file container. 'These people will be able to help you.'

Joel took the file and looked at the names and information, 'These people are in Mainframe?' He looked at Hopper curiously.

Franz smiled, 'The read-me of fate is a complex program indeed.'

--

Artillery fire paced back and forth, trying to keep the ABC's from advancing on the central bunker. One of their own CPU fighters caught fire and descended to their location. Dot saw as this occurred and quickly scrambled the team inside the bunker away from the crash point, which destroyed part of the blast shields.

Dot took cover behind the downed CPU fighter as Johnny rushed in front of her to provide cover. 'Stay down, Miss Matrix.' A nearby platoon mobilized to their area to assist in protecting their commander. Johnny kept up the weapons fire and remained by Dots side.

Taking a look over the hot points of the battlefield, Dot quickly anticipated where they were needed the most and ordered everyone to follow to another nearby bunker to regroup. The binome soldiers surrounded her, but the given fact that she was taller than them required her to use her own firearm to fire at enemy vehicles. As soon as they made it to the bunker, she issued out another command, ordering some officers to rush into a fallen area. All of the soldiers filed out of the new command bunker, except for one who stayed behind. Curious, she asked, 'What are you doing?'

With a familiar deep voice, the binome said, 'I'm playing games.' Energy washed over the soldier and he took the form of Megabyte. Dot scrambled away in terror as the virus reached out to her. She managed to get out of his initial reach, but that didn't stop him from making another attempt.

To the side, Johnny suddenly realized what had happened and exclaimed, 'Megabyte!' The "cowboy" quickly flipped his gun in Megabytes direction and fired a few shots at close range. Like it was a simple nuisance, Megabyte side stepped the energy blasts and quickly pounced to Johnny's side. He grabbed the gun and crushed it bare-handed. Johnny let go of the gun and made an attack at Megabytes leg. The virus momentarily stumbled, but hardly moved from his spot. Johnny knew he didn't stand a chance, but it did what he needed it to do.

Megabyte kicked Johnny away then grabbed hold of him by the head, lifting him off the ground, 'Like you could do anything.'

With a smug and defiant grin, Johnny shrugged and replied, 'Enough to slow you down.'

Megabyte looked behind him to see that Dot had escaped the small confines of the bunker, then returned his gaze to Johnny. Concentrating for a brief moment, a small amount of energy pulsated between the two and Johnny was knocked unconscious. Megabyte tossed the binome away and returned his attention to following Dot.

Dot had made it outside the bunker and ran to the nearest platoon. She took out her own firearm holstered on her hip. She was never one to get personally involved in combat, even though she was skilled enough to hold her own in the games. She quickly relayed the situation to the team and they all grew more nervous; directly facing Megabyte was a scary thought for any Mainframer. They all grouped together in a defensive position, waiting for the moment when Megabyte came into view. They knew how fast he was on land, so it wasn't enough to simply look in the direction Dot came from; Megabyte could easily come up from behind as well.

After a moment of a tense waiting, Johnny suddenly emerged from the bunker and stumbled over to them, looking exhausted. Dot looked hopeful and called out to Johnny, 'Get over here quickly!' Johnny hobbled over until he was only a few steps away when Dot realized something. Aiming her gun at Johnny, she said coldly, 'Wait.'

Feigning mock surprise, Johnny then evilly smiled and morphed into Megabyte. Dot fired at him, but he used his forearm as a shield to deflect the shot. He roughly pushed Dot away and proceeded to attack the platoon she was with. She hit the side of a bench and was in a daze for a moment, barely seeing the platoon officers falling. Several were tossed with ease by Megabyte into the nearby pond. Just as she began to get back up, Megabyte jammed his claws into the stomach of the last officer of the platoon, and he slowly erased with a painful expression. Dot tried to fire at Megabyte again, but the virus reached and tensely grabbed her wrist and bent it at an odd angle, forcing her to drop it. She winced in pain and instinctively pulled away, but Megabyte grabbed her opposite shoulder and pulled her in close to look at her straight in the eyes. Leaning in close to her, he said smugly, 'All too easy.'

Ulrich's voice came in from behind him, 'If it's a fight you want, try picking one with me.' As the virus turned around, Ulrich had already leapt from the top of the CPU wreckage to deliver a drop-kick to his face. Putting all his weight into it, he was able to knock even Megabyte off center. He dropped Dot and she rolled away, grabbing her gun again. Ulrich gathered his energy and returned several attacks to Megabyte, who struggled to avoid the sharp swords. Megabyte managed to slap away one of the swords and made a vicious jab at Ulrich's chest. Just barely twisting his body to avoid the attack, Ulrich stepped in closer to Megabyte and kicked off his chest, actually pushing himself further back then Megabyte.

Noticing that Ulrich was a respectable opponent, Megabyte pointed at Ulrich then jumped away. His single jump crossed a long distance of the field, and he made another leap, getting further and further away. Realizing that Megabyte had made a challenge and wanted him to follow, Ulrich called out 'Super-sprint!' and became a blur to everyone else. Just as Megabyte landed his second jump, Ulrich was on top of him, and made a slash at the virus. Megabyte took the hit to his forearm, giving him a significant gash, and looking painful. The area around the injury momentarily changed to wireframe, but soon returned to normal. Ulrich skidded to a halt to end his run, and immediately returned to a fighting stance.

Megabyte charged at him and made several slashes with his claws, Ulrich carefully dodged each one. In a move that surprised him, Megabyte extended a tentacle from his wrist that hit Ulrich square in the chest. Ulrich shuddered in pain and stepped back. Surprised that he was actually hurt, he gathered his strength and cut the tentacle, which retracted back to the virus. As Ulrich shook his head to overcome the strange sensation, Megabyte loomed over him, taking him by an arm and a leg and threw him across a drop-off and out of sight.

Megabyte rolled his shoulders; then turned to finish what he had started with Dot.

--

Falling into the lower levels of Mainframe, Ulrich managed to regain his bearings long enough to take hold of a rod linked to a scaffolding and swung onto the structure. He clutched his chest in confusion and asked Jeremie, 'What happened?'

Jeremie was already well onto it and said, 'Megabyte tried to infect you. Your code structure is denser than anything he has encountered before so it didn't get very far.'

'It actually hurt. I don't mean the inconvenient pressure we normally feel… it actually hurt.'

'Well he actually implanted an infection in you…Yes!'

'Jeremie! That isn't comforting.'

'No, he left a code strand in your system, I now have a sample of his digital make-up.'

'I'm more worried about my infection! Is it going to zombify me?'

'Doubtful.'

'I kind of want a yes or no.' Ulrich waited for a time, hoping for a conclusive response. 'Jeremie!'

After being hassled Jeremie responded with an exasperated, 'Uh…No…err.'

Frustrated, Ulrich said, 'If I start craving the flesh of little children I will hold you responsible.' He turned his thoughts on getting back into the fight. 'Now, where am I?'

Jeremie calculated Ulrich's location. 'The battle is going on at level 1; there are 31 levels below the main street; you have descended to level 18. You need to go to your right and then make a left at a data terminal. That will send you to level 31 but once you past a restaurant called Al's there looks like an express line that leads back to level 1…got that?'

A sarcastic 'Sure,' came from him as Ulrich went into a super-sprint and made the first turn Jeremie described.

Final Steps

Odd placed the instructions on a console with Matrix right next to him. 'This is a lot more complicated then I'd like.'

Matrix looked at the instruction tablet and said, 'It's supposed to be that way, it isn't a good idea for just anyone to have easy and open access.'

Fumbling his way through the tablet, Odd mumbled, 'Yeah, just look at Wikipedia.' He then asked Matrix, 'Shouldn't you know about this stuff better then me?'

Matrix shook his head, 'I haven't ever bothered to download the technical skills. AndrAIa was usually the one to handle this type of stuff. I can manage with some things, but I have no idea what you're doing.'

'_I _have no idea what I'm doing.'

Jeremie's voice came on in Odds head, 'Okay, I'm back. I think I can figure out this operating system.'

Odd breathed a sigh of relief, 'Thanks Jeremie, I was getting a little panicked here.' With Jeremie leading him step-by-step, Odd managed to finalize the bypass. He activated the code from the default command and it penetrated the viral infection. The consoles came back on-line and the entire complex restarted itself. Pumping his arm, Odd exclaimed, 'Yes!'

Matrix made his way to the center console, bringing up all the base command files. 'It's running on auxiliary power. I need to do a total restart and get main power back on.'

'So…what does that mean?'

'We need to return to the main core room and flip the circuits back on. The power outage served its purpose.'

Matrix led the way out and locked the War Room behind them. Moving to an access hatch, they heard a viral patrol still in the hallways. Odd lightly backed up against the wall, looking at Matrix. He put a finger over his mouth, indicating to stay quiet. He carefully opened the hatch and had Odd crawl inside, as he followed close behind and shut it.

--

Intently examining Megabytes' code while snacking on some leftover chips they bought for the party, Jeremie was forced to pause his examination when Joel reappeared on his monitor. 'Jeremie, I need help opening another system.'

'Sure.' He activated the impromptu wash program that had come in handy lately.

Joel's eyes followed the opening of the portal and he commanded the advance of his squad. 'Thanks. But Jeremie, I just had a conversation that you might like to know about. I was approached by someone claiming to be Franz Hopper.'

'What!' Jeremie tossed the bag of chips behind him and diverted all his attention to the screen. 'What did he say?'

'It was mostly encrypted, but he did give me something to work with.'

'Uh huh.' Jeremie positioned a notepad with a few dozen words on it; it was he collected of strange phrases Joel had used on the left and Jeremie's interpretation on the right. Examples were: nano is second, second is day, function is purpose, processing is living, access is to acquire/think and random­ is crazy. He scribbled down another one hoping it was an accurate translation, encrypted is cryptic. While writing he said, 'Yeah, what did he say?'

'He told me that we can't beat Xana, we have to contain him. I don't know how and I'm guessing you don't either, but Hopper gave me a list of two people to contact, ironically both are in Mainframe.'

'What are their names?'

'Phong and Talon. I think I recognize Phong, he was a system administrator, but I don't know who Talon is. I will return to Mainframe as soon as I finish this next system.' He then stated, 'Personally, I'm exhausted. I was up all last second. Did you get any sleep?'

The comment reminding him, Jeremie rubbed his eyes from the time. He looked at a nearby clock, which read 4:00 AM. He shook his head to get everything back. 'No.'

--

Dot was busy commanding the CPU forces to redirect strategy to different locations. She suddenly got a vid-window pop up in front of her. Matrix was on the screen and he was in the core room, with power gradually turning on. Odd's head would occasionally pop up into view to get a look. Matrix said, 'Obviously we have vid-windows back on. Power is restored to the Principle Office and all your command codes are in effect, Dot. We're waiting for you.'

With a big smile crossing her face, Dot pulled out her organizer and linked up to the command systems. 'I knew you guys would come through.' Dot ran to a nearby transport and opened up her own vid-window back to them. 'Lock all the doors and get out here because we need the help. I'm going to trade places with you and get inside the War Room. I can do more there.'

Matrix nodded, 'Okay.' He moved out of sight and the vid-window closed.

Trying to do several things at once, Dot called AndrAIa over to her and said, 'I'm going to get to the Principle Office with Delta Squad. You need to take command while I get there.'

--

In the midst of an exchange of firepower between him and another enemy squad, Bob saw Ulrich return to the surface level, and pointed him out to Yumi. With both of them staying under the fire, they moved over to meet with Ulrich. Bob said, 'Dot told me you fought Megabyte? Do you know where he went?'

Shaking his head 'No,' Ulrich said, 'I'm guessing he blended back into the battlefield. He could still be anyone.'

Bob shot his head up when he saw an ABC turn its focus on them. They scattered as it opened fire and Bob quickly hit the tank with an energy pulse. Ulrich flicked out his sword and also threw it at the tank, imbedding itself underneath it and hitting a fuel line. The damage was just enough to force it from the sky, but unfortunately the landing spot was in the midst of an ally squadron. Bob winced in frustration, he didn't like to delete anyone.

Ulrich rubbed his fingers together, taking notice of the loss of his sword. Yumi called out to Jeremie, 'Jeremie, Ulrich just lost one of his swords, can you get on restoring it.'

Jeremie was heavily distracted examining the strand of data he got from Megabyte, when he finally looked away from that screen and started working on Ulrich's character profile. Realizing something was different, he said, 'Yumi, Ulrich still has both swords…wait.' He paused as he examined the map of Floating Point he had, pointing out to himself where Ulrich was at the top-right of the map, then following his finger to where Yumi was at the mid-left. 'Yumi, Ulrich isn't even close to you.'

Yumi looked at Ulrich standing right next to her. Ulrich looked back at her with a questioning look, like he was wondering what was going on. Yumi turned away for a moment and said insistently, 'Yes he is.'

With his mind started to catch up with what Megabyte was doing, Jeremie exclaimed, 'Yumi, It isn't Ulrich, it's Megabyte!'

As her eyes widened in surprise, Yumi turned on her heel to face the fake Ulrich, who was waiting for her. He stepped in close and Yumi tried to slash at his face with her fan blade. Ulrich/Megabyte leaned back to avoid the attack, then grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back. Restraining her like that, he used the sword he had left and placed the blade under her chin, to convince her to stop moving. He leaned in over her shoulder and still with Ulrich's voice said, 'I'm surprised by your appearance here. I've never met a sprite like you and your friends. You have no icon, I can't infect you and copying your code also gave me your weapons. And who is this "Jeremie?"'

From behind them, Bob's voice said, 'Let her go Megabyte.' Staying in Ulrich's appearance, he turned to see Bob had Glitch ready to shoot him in the back.

He smiled with a smug confidence, which was especially strange coming from Ulrich's face. 'Guardian, are you really planning on deleting me? That is so unlike you.'

Bob replied, 'I will do what I have to do. In the end I will protect Mainframe.'

'Sad, rather pathetic actually. You are a Guardian, a proud heritage, but despite all that you are alone here. There is no one to save you.'

'Except me.' After planning it out in her head first, Yumi made her move. She flared out her fan and slid the blade of the sword between the spokes, twisting the fan and the entire sword along with it. Suddenly dislodged of his weapon, Megabyte saw Yumi twist out of his grasp and bluntly punch him square in the face. Being in the body of Ulrich, he didn't have the same mass as his virus form and he fell to the ground.

Bob turned and fired an energy pulse at Megabyte, but the virus simply fought off the impact by blocking it with his forearms, glaring angrily at Bob when it was done. Yumi took a step closer and tried to kick the virus in the side. He caught her leg between his body and left arm, then brutally hit her in the stomach, knocking her away. Bob took aim again with Glitch and fired, but in the blink of an eye Megabyte changed his form to take on the appearance of Yumi, and while wielding a copy of her weapons he deflected the pulse away. Undeterred, Bob fired a second pulse at Megabyte, but he deflected the pulse at the ground in front of Bob, knocking him down.

Yumi had gotten back up and turned to face the duplicate of herself. Megabyte approached her coolly and said in her own voice, 'This is what I really enjoy, letting you learn that you can be replaced. I couldn't care less if Mainframe is standing after all this. I just like the game.' He stepped closer to her, and Yumi took a step back, keeping her distance. Megabyte took another step and Yumi continued with the same. 'What? You afraid of looking yourself in the eye.'

Confidently shaking her head, Yumi replied, 'No, I'm making sure they know who to fire at.' She pointed behind Megabyte.

Fearing that he was in danger, he turned to see who she was talking about. Upon seeing no one targeting him, he heard Yumi take one step in his direction this time, and she kicked him in the chest. He stumbled away and Yumi laughed at him. 'In the end, you're still a virus. Right now, you're nothing but a cheap copy.'

Megabyte gave off a guttural growl with Yumi's voice and said, 'Fine then.' As he got up he reverted to his virus form.

Bob caught him by surprise with another energy pulse from Glitch. He held on a continuous stream and said knowingly to Yumi, 'You have no idea just how correct you were. This isn't Megabyte.' Yumi stiffened up when he said that, surprised. Bob explained, 'It's an alias, he did this once before. He wouldn't bother fighting us like this for so long, it's a waste of time and effort. He is probably planning something else.' He stopped the energy pulse, and added, 'That means we don't have to worry about not deleting him.'

Megabyte knew he was found out, and said, 'I'm real enough to stop you.' As he lunged at Bob, the whisking sound of Yumi's fan came closer and cut him across the back deeply. He stumbled in anger as his back briefly reverted to wire-frame before returning back. Bob stepped in close as Megabyte attacked him. Having full confidence he could face the alias he calmly stepped in under the attack and delivered a quick jab to Megabyte's stomach. The alias stumbled back and Bob shook his hand lightly in pain. Almost lucid, the alias attacked Bob again but he formed an energy gauntlet from Glitch and proceeded to hit the alias across his body and the face.

After taking a step back, Yumi shouted out, 'I got it now.' Getting a lot of speed in the short distance she had, Yumi ran forward and ran up Megabyte's body, kicking off his head and did a back flip, then throwing her fan straight through his neck, making him disintegrate in a shower of pixels and energy.

In examining Megabyte's infection code, Jeremie found the data that explained some puzzling questions. He relayed to Yumi, 'Yumi, I've just discovered something interesting about Megabyte, he's an alias, the one that attacked Ulrich and you. He is just a copy, his code was incomplete.'

'I know Jeremie.'

'What?'

'We've just dealt with it. The alias is gone now.'

'Oh.' Jeremie thought to himself, 'Really, it all makes sense. The ability to clone himself and take on the appearance of someone else, those are both hallmarks of Xana's strategy.'

The Falling Shadow

In the system he had recently entered, Joel commanded the operation to secure another virus. This virus was impeccably muscular, colored yellow and black, and had a face with few features. The only thing you could see was two wide eyes, glowing angrily. The Guardian SWAT team had him cornered, and he was thrashing around in anger. Joel came in closer, and took careful notice of his eyes, realizing that the eye of Xana was not present. He made a mental note and turned towards a nearby transport.

He heard some noise behind him and the virus had escaped, and began running around in a berserker fashion. The virus targeted Joel and grabbed hold of him mid-run. The Guardian struggled as he could see the virus was trying to slam him into a wall. Thinking quickly, he had Vostro emit a solid-energy clamp that took hold around the waist of the virus. Joel planted his feet and flipped the virus over-top of him, slamming him into the ground. That dazed the virus long enough for the other SWAT members to arrive and restrain him again. Joel rolled his shoulder from the event, and yelled out, 'Increase energy ratio to a 5/16th. I don't want that happening again.'

After that incident, Joel renewed his trip to the nearby transport. Opening the door and stepping inside, Turbo activated a projection screen and revealed a map of the net. 'After the information we got from the last four viruses we captured, we may have identified the location of the massive battleship.' The projector showed that the ship should be nearby this system. Turbo pointed to the location. 'I've relayed all available attack ships to rendezvous at Hub Worf 507. Seventy percent of our fleet is dedicated to this mission.'

The younger Guardian nodded, 'The first virus we found here sang like an MP3. This enemy is unpredictable and powerful, and I'm not sure exactly what he is capable of. You know what I know; even stopping the ship won't end our problems, only delay Xana. I need to return to Mainframe.'

Turbo ended the projection and handed it to Joel. 'Give Bob and Dot my greetings. Tell them we are with them.'

'I will.' Turning on his heels, Joel headed toward the Expedition.

--

Mouse returned in the transport she had taken, and AndrAIa directed cover fire for her arrival. Once Mouse made it back to the bunker, the door opened and both Mouse and Enzo emerged. Surprised and noticing some scorch marks on the transport, AndrAIa asked, 'What happened?'

Panicked, Enzo said, 'I was almost to the base when virals swarmed all over it and bombed it out. They saw us but Hack and Slash protected me while I got away.'

An explosion impacted off the blast shield, making them all instinctively duck their heads down for a moment. Mouse added, 'I found him not far away from it, and I confirmed what he said.' She nodded at the transport. 'We barely got away from there ourselves. I don't get it, how did they find the bunker?'

--

While they both moved down the labyrinth of corridors, Odd's ears picked up on something strange. Skidding to a halt, he peered around a different corner and called out to Matrix. The large sprite followed and looked around to see what Odd heard. Suddenly Matrix exclaimed, 'Dad!'

Welman slithered up to them and stood up partially, the flattened peak forming to talk to them. 'Matrix, my boy! Come follow me.'

Matrix followed behind his father while Odd lumbered behind, confused, 'That's your Dad?'

'Yeah, it's a long story.'

'I'll bet.'

Welman led them to a maintenance chamber, used to repair damaged vehicles. Odd turned on a flashlight and they walked around the room. When the light beam was visible, a familiar youthful voice echoed out, 'Hey guys, over here.'

Looking around, Matrix saw a massive indentation in the ground, it was a chamber designed to allow work to be done on the undercarriage of the vehicles. They walked to the edge and looked down, shining the flashlight on little Enzo. Apparently he had fallen in the hole, and couldn't reach the edge. Embarrassed, he said, 'Hi Matrix, could I get a little help down here?'

Authors Commentary

I was fairly intimidated by this chapter, because of the logistics of writing out such an elaborate battle sequence. I had to get a notepad and make a list of who was doing what when where and why. This took me a lot longer to fine tune because of that, and I think the product comes out much better because everything has a point and reason for being there.

Teaser for the next chapter-

_Sometimes victory is a deep price, and even if the battle is won the loss will be staggering. Unexpectedly the faith of one person will alter the balance. The battle for Mainframe will conclude, but then they face Xana, who doesn't have such lofty goals as revenge, only devastation. _


	9. The Best of Both Worlds

Authors Commentary

I have a file I keep separate from my story chapter files, called "Basic Story Outline." While I write the complete and eventually published version of the chapter in the individual file, I write any notes or moments of inspiration I have for later in the story. That allows me to focus on the immediate chapter and not be distracted waiting for the chronological moment to write an idea I have in my head. Anyway, when I picked up all the ideas I had put together for this chapter, it was already written…at least most of it. This is a crucial chapter because it changes the direction the story will take after this.

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 8: The Best of Both Worlds 

Condescendingly, Matrix said, 'Now how did you get down there?'

Enzo shrugged his shoulders, 'It was dark!' 

Odd took hold of the ledge and hung down just barely enough for Enzo to jump and reach his outstretched hand. Once Odd had lifted him to their level, Enzo asked, 'Who are you?' His eyes started to light up as he created his own answer, 'Are you part of an elite Guardian strike force here to delete Megabyte?'

Giving him a chance to expound, Odd said, 'No I'm from a system called Lyoko. My name is Odd, and I'm a Lyoko Warrior.' 

Enzo's mouth opened in excitement, 'The Lyoko Warriors…that sounds so cool!' He pointed to himself, 'I'm going to be a Guardian. Just like Bob.'

'Guardian?' Odd thought back to the things Joel had explained to them, 'Wait…Joel was a Guardian. Will you get one of those keytools? That thing was wicked!'

Going almost to the point of being hyper, Enzo said, 'Oh I hope so!'

Interrupting their fanfare, Matrix said, 'We should get to the battle and get all this done.' He led the way out with Welman taking his place on Enzo's shoulder. Just as they stepped out from the maintenance room, they heard another familiar voice from Mike the TV. 'Hey you guys! Wait for me.' Matrix sighed and his shoulders slumped in annoyance. 

Mike caught up to them quickly and accused Enzo, 'You left me in the viral nest all alone! I could have gotten my eyes pulled out from my screen!'

Odd got down on one knee to look at Mike, perplexed at his appearance. 'You're an actual teevee?' 

Matrix didn't want to waste any more time. 'Enzo, Mike, stay here and wait for Dot to arrive. I'm going to head out and join the battle.'

'No! I'm going with you.' Enzo yelled at Matrix defiantly.

Showing the same stubborn tendencies, Matrix said, 'I'm not going to take you to Floating Point. You are going to wait right here.' He pointed intensely at the ground.

Enzo pointed down the opposite hallway, 'There are still virals in the Principle Office. Do you honestly think I'm safer in here with _him_...'Enzo pointed to Mike, then finished with a mocking tone, '…then with you _Mighty Warrior Matrix._'

Lightly pondering what Enzo said, Odd commented, 'He has a point.' The line was met with an angry glare from Matrix with his fake eye glowing red, scaring the hell out of Odd, '…then again, whatever you feel is best.'

Not liking the fact his commands were ignored, he still admitted he's rather have Enzo with them then by himself. He pointed at the little guy, 'You stay close to me, no hero stuff.' His finger then moved to Mike, 'The same goes for you, except keep your mouth shut.' Out of reflex Matrix was about to say something to Odd as well but stopped himself, instead simply saying, 'Let's get out of here.'

--

Aelita soared into the sky, challenging the movements of the tanks. Releasing an energy field, the force of it hit the tank so hard it seemed to flip away. She twirled to avoid several attacks in her direction. Watching the advance of a squadron of hostiles, she was suddenly shot in the back by an enemy tank. Her wings disappeared and she began to fall to the ground, only partially conscious from the trauma.

After releasing a volley of energy pulses at an advancing squad, Bob saw Aelita dropping from the sky. He called to Yumi over his shoulder, 'Cover me!' Yumi nodded and threw a fan out towards the squad Bob was targeting, to get their attention towards her. Bob sprinted from his barricade towards Aelita and issued the command, 'Glitch! Springboard.' Knowing Bob's intentions, Glitch released the center gear and flew out in front of him, expanding in size and balancing on a giant spring. Bob planted both feet on the gear and the spring launched him into the air, with Glitch quickly reforming back to Bob's forearm. At the height of his jump he caught Aelita and cradled her close to as he began to fall as well. 

As the ground started to become uncomfortably close, Bob twisted to put his back towards the ground and Glitch formed a solid energy slide to cushion the fall. Once he got on steady ground the landing was rough, but both he and Aelita were okay. Bob got back to his feet and carried Aelita through the battlefield to the nearest bunker. He set her down gently as she became aware of her surroundings again. Her eyes fully opened and she shook her head to get back her focus. Rubbing her forehead, she jumped to her feet and smiled at Bob, 'Thanks. Let's get back out there.' 

Stunned, Bob said, 'You just survived the full blast from an ABC cannon. I've never seen anything like it.'

Aelita shrugged, 'I've had worse. It was nothing like being hit by a creeper.'

'You sure you're okay?'

'Yeah.'

Jeremie's voice echoed inside her head and said, 'You have some back-up coming.'

Both Aelita and Bob reacted to a strange pulsation, and Glitch also made a slight chirp. Bob said, 'A portal is opening.'

Surprised, Aelita asked, 'You felt that too?' Looking out of the bunker, they saw a portal open in the sky and the Expedition emerged. 'Joel's back.'

--

Joel was not expecting the portal to release him in the middle of a firefight. Enemy ABC's noticed the Guardian markings on the ship and opened fire on him without hesitation. Being rocked in his chair violently, Joel yelled out, 'Vostro! Bring up defenses, release diversionary tactics.' The ship rocked again from weapons fire, Joel chose this time to put his seat harness on.

The already partially damaged Expedition activated an energy shield, and unloaded a cloud streak behind it to cause problems for his pursuers. Pulling hard on the controls, Joel swung the ship to maintain forward momentum but with the rear of the ship leading, allowing for all forward weapons to aim into the cloud. He fired into the smoke blindly, but it also helped that his targets were unaware of what was coming before it happened. The firepower of the Expedition was more advanced then the ABC's and quickly three of them were destroyed.

Joel had barely recovered the ships trajectory when Vostro brought up a communication link through Glitch to Bob. Joel gave an exasperated grin, 'That wasn't exactly the best entrance I could have made.'

Bob shook his head with a laugh, 'I've seen better, but I'm not complaining.'

Slightly more serious, Joel asked, 'I see communications are back up. What do you need me to do?'

'Air superiority is the primary concern, your ship should provide enough muscle to slow down the enemy ABC's. Draw them away from our ground troops and we'll try to knock them out with anti-air cannons.'

'There are still three dozen of them.'

'Well we've lost all but ten of our own fighters.' He added with some sarcasm, 'Let's hope that they don't all target you at the same time.'

Thumping his fist on his arm rest, Joel wryly said, 'Now you've just jinxed me.' Joel pulled the Expedition in for a close ground run, trying to gather enemies away from the Mainframer troops. He did manage to gain a following of ten ABC's, who clumped together and continued to open fire on him. His shield prevented the damage from being critical, but it didn't stop the impacts from giving Joel a good shaking. Leading the ABC's in a clear pattern, the ally ground cannons were able to get an easy lock on his followers, and proceeded to fire on them, destroying most of them.

Joel made a second pass close to the ground, trying to do the same trick again, but the enemy fighters had learned from the previous maneuver and spread themselves out. This forced Joel to change tactics and do a traditional dogfight against them. With the armaments of his ship continually overshadowing the ABC's, Joel nevertheless was wary of how much punishment he was taking. 

After succeeding in two separate dogfights, he proceeded to engage another tank. They raced head on towards each other, Joel suspected the pilot was trying to play a game of chicken, so he unloaded a volley of laser fire. As they grew closer together, Joel realized too late that his enemy had something else in mind. He attempted to bank away but the ABC did a kamikaze into the Expedition. The shield kept the Expedition intact, but the raw force was enough to dissipate the shield and the ship ruptured a vital power conduit. Joel worked with pure strength to keep the ship from falling like a rock, and pulled it to the side, maintaining a gradual descent that unfortunately rode him well away from the battlefield of Floating Point and into the neighboring Beverly Hills sector. In a strange way, the ship crashed gracefully along the lower streets, until crashing into a convenience store. The store was a mess, but intact. The same could be said of the Expedition.

The ship was prepared with special shock absorbing foam that would deploy on such an occasion, and Joel found himself covered in it as he unbuckled himself. While spitting out pieces of foam, Vostro jumped onto his arm and brought up Bob's image again. 

Bob asked, 'You okay.'

Spitting out some more foam, Joel replied, 'Yeah. My ship is down and requires some repairs, but I'm okay.'

'You definitely put a good dent into their air forces.'

'That's nice.' Vostro suddenly whirled and revealed enemy troops nearby. Joel looked around, then said to Bob, 'I'm close to a group of virals situated in a building. I'm going to check it out and see why they aren't a part of the battle.'

'Okay, but hurry, we can use the extra help.'

In the Company of Heroes

Opening a hatch to the outside, Matrix, Odd, Enzo and Mike all exited to see the chaos of Floating Point. For whatever reason, Odd was calmly humming a song to himself, trying to psych himself up a little. Without really meaning to, he rocks out a little to the chord of a song, stopping when he realized he was being watched.

Matrix looked at him strangely, 'You're a different type of sprite, aren't you?'

Odd discarded any attempt at being normal, 'I am who I am.'

'Do you do anything that isn't random?'

Odd retorted the only way he could, 'Hey, be normal and the crowd will accept you. Be deranged and they'll make you their leader.'

Enzo asked, 'You're the leader?'

Stopping the temptation to claim he was, Odd said honestly, 'No, I'm not, that's not what's important. I would have to say that in my group Jeremie fills that role.' 

Curious, Enzo asked, 'And Jeremie is outside in the fight?'

'Oh, you won't be meeting him. He stayed back on Lyoko so he could do other important things.'

'So what do you do?'

'I just do what needs to be done. We all have our roles.'

--

AndrAIa had transferred the central command bunker to one that was very close to the Principle Office. She was keeping up the immediate field commands while waiting for Dot to take her position in the Principle Office. By this time Johnny had returned from his encounter with the Megabyte alias and had transferred his body guarding duties to her. He looked like a lot of the other CPU soldiers, tired, scuffed up and out of breath, but he wasn't about to complain about it.

Enzo remained at her side; Mouse had left to catch up with Dot. Bob was located off-center to the park on the side of Kits, commanding several platoons on advancements. From that direction Aelita came in from the sky, quickly reading off a report, 'Bob told me that sub-sectors 10-28 are under our control. The virals have control of sub-sectors 3-7 and 32-40. According to him we have the advantage now.'

AndrAIa nodded happily, 'Tell him to keep pushing the lines on the sub-sectors we don't control. If we keep the virals on the run, they'll be forced to surrender.' Giving her a quick salute, Aelita flew off just as quickly as she had dropped in, and she dodged the heavy traffic of weapons fire as she headed off to Bob's location. AndrAIa looked at Johnny, who remained dutifully posed with his weapon towards the battlefield. To him she said, 'This is looking good for us.'

Nodding but with still a focused expression, Johnny said, 'The battle isn't won yet. I've got a feeling that ol' Megabyte is still planning something bad.'

Enzo said, 'Come on. We all knew that Bob and my Sis would come through for Mainframe. There's no way Megabyte is that good.'

AndrAIa shook her head, 'Dot has a plan for just about everything. Especially since Megabyte took over the Office, she has been running the entire underground movement and has even placed in a couple of contingency plans in case we don't find Megabyte.' As the last word came out, a group of ABC's made an attack run against the bunker, unloading serious weapon fire on them and destroying one of the anti-air turrets. The bunker shook and light debris fell down, but it remained in tact. That didn't keep everyone inside from ducking down out of reflex. AndrAIa watched as the ABC's made another attack run, with other turret fire screaming past them.

Coming from the direction of the Principle Office, a voice was heard calling out, 'Gun! Command line…multiple target acquisition.' A dozen energy bursts fanned out from a single source and did quick work of the group. Two of them crashed and one was heavily damaged, and the aftermath was only punctuated when Matrix was seen blowing off the smoke from his gun. 

Odd was right next to him, shocked at the firepower just revealed. 'Whoa, now _that's_ a gun!'

Glancing at the heat monitor on the side of his weapon, Matrix said nonchalantly, 'It's been a while since I've had the chance to do that.' Running over to them Matrix headed to the bunker with Odd behind him. Behind them both were Enzo and Mike, trying to watch while at the same time trying to stay hidden. 

As they lowered to the ground and reached full view of the bunker, AndrAIa called out in joy and surprise, 'Sparky.'

Stifling a snicker, Odd said to Matrix, 'Did she just call you "Sparky?" That's a pretty girly nickname.'

Matrix only sighed and shook his head. AndrAIa's smile faded as she realized that there were two little Enzos. She looked between the two and realized the horrifying truth. Seeing that he was caught, the Enzo in the bunker changed into the real Megabyte and reached for the closest person, who was AndrAIa. Matrix jumped from is zip-board and placed a target reticule on the virus' forehead, but he had taken AndrAIa by the neck and held her in the way. 

Hesitant, Matrix relented but kept his gun ready. 'You're in a bad position, virus. You let her go, we'll take you captive. You hurt her at all…and I'll delete you without hesitation.' Odd took aim with his wrist, but waited. 

'Oh really, boy.' Megabyte retained the steely persona he always had. 'I had little Enzo being watched over by designated guards but I assume that they were most incompetent. That seems to be my lot in this internet. I was going to bide my time and let your forces, both clean and infected, delete each other. But as I expected you proved to be most clever and that has forced my hand.'

It had become a tense standoff against Megabyte. He slowly tightened his grip against AndrAIa's neck. He commanded, 'Drop your weapons.' A few virals lined up behind Megabyte to provide some added threat to his command. While very hesitant, Matrix carefully placed his gun down, and Odd put his arms down. Little Enzo and Mike cowered behind Matrix. Megabyte grinned over these events. 'Now, I have some questions.' He glared at Odd. 'Who are these children you've employed in your army and why are they here?'

Being the only one to speak for the group, Odd said. 'We are the warriors of Lyoko. Xana is our enemy.'

This was hilarious from Megabytes point of view, and he laughed in a mocking fashion, 'You are the "Warriors" of Lyoko. Dear me that is a riot. It seems like every child fancy themselves a hero.' Matrix looked like he was ready to lunge for his gun but Megabyte caught sight of him, 'Don't even dare, boy. It isn't just your favorite female sprite in danger.' From his hand he revealed that he had possession of an icon, and they knew it belonged to the real little Enzo.

Matrix was growing frustrated; his greatest trial was patience and it was only worse when someone he loved was in danger.

Megabyte backed away with AndrAIa being held by one hand around the throat and the other hand holding the icon. 'I'm not quite satisfied. You have the Principle Office back under your control, but it shouldn't be too difficult for me to return to it, considering how easy it was the last time.'

Matrix gritted his teeth, 'We have some unfinished business.'

Megabyte flexed his claws. 'Oh no, you soundly beat me in our last encounter, I will grudgingly admit that. My business was concluded. But you were so caught up in your own morality that you couldn't finish what you should have done. No matter if I made it to the Supercomputer or if you had simply held me prisoner instead of banishing me to the web, you left me processing. That was your mistake and all this is a result of your supposedly "righteous" stand.'

Matrix popped the knuckles of his fist and said with conviction, 'You have the spilt energy of hundreds of innocents on your hands and you _dare _to claim it is my fault?' AndrAIa was lightly struggling against the hold against her neck. She subtly gave a specific look at Matrix like she was going to try something; he silently begged her not to. 

--

Aelita dropped down and landed near Bob and Yumi. She pointed out, 'AndrAIa says to keep on the pressure and to...' Aelita suddenly became dizzy and stumbled to the ground. Yumi and Bob dropped to her side to keep her standing.

Bob said, 'I feel something strange too, you must be really sensitive to it.'

Yumi asked, 'What is it?'

Trying to keep her head up, she said, 'Pulsations…I can feel it. Xana is coming.' Just as she finished the sentence, the red and black sky pulsated angrily. Shock waves ran across the outer wall several times, each pulse growing in intensity and frequency. As the largest pulsation hit, several blindingly white portals opened up around Floating Point, including one in front of them. 

The portal in front of them revealed a large virus, lightly standing on the balls of its feet and with arms that could touch the ground while standing. The creature angled its head in their direction, growling while demonstrating its grotesque arrangement of teeth, and its eyes glowed red.

Yumi took a defensive posture while Bob held Aelita up. From the other fifteen portals emerged other viruses, including the velociraptor Joel had encountered earlier. All of them were large and intimidating creatures, which didn't bode well.

Bob said, 'This is bad.'

Waiting for the creature to make its first move, Yumi asked, 'How bad?'

'Very bad.'

--

The noise surprised everyone at the bunker as well, even Megabyte. As he looked in the direction of the portals, AndrAIa made her move. She hit Megabytes shin with the heel of her boot, causing him to instinctively bend his head forward, and she slammed the back of her head into his face. Being so physically strong, it didn't phase him much, but she used the little chance she had to pull his hand from her throat and she dropped to the ground. His hand was not far enough away and his claws scraped the right side of her face, and she started to bleed. 

In an attempt to allow AndrAIa to get away, Odd fired off a couple of carefully placed laser arrows at Megabyte. The arrows impacted off of Megabytes armor plating, knocking him back but not quite penetrating. Megabyte extended his tentacle and used it as a whip to hit Matrix's gun away just as he reached for it, then flinging the tentacle again to Odd in the head. AndrAIa had gotten out of his reach so Megabyte lunged at Matrix, who promptly threw him over his shoulder and they began a series of grapples against each other.

Megabyte got in glancing blow to Matrix's stomach, which was enough to drop the Renegade. Ready for a quick strike to the head, Megabyte flexed his claws but was suddenly punched in the back by Odd. He swung his arm around wildly but Odd was short enough to stay under the attack. Returning to a boxing stance, Odd made a few quick jabs to Megabytes torso, then backing away to prepare for another series. Megabyte lashed out with broad strokes of his wide paws, but Odd dodged that and made a second combination of jabs and punches, finally finishing this series with a solid punch to the face. Megabytes head was forced away from the punch, but as he slowly returned to face Odd, it was clear that the attacks were not strong enough to phase the virus. Odd stood in a fighting pose, eventually shaking his hands in pain to reveal that the combination was tough on his knuckles.

Matrix had retrieved his gun during the distraction and readied himself to fire at Megabyte when a smoke line trailed up to him. Emerging in solid form while remaining his high momentum, William surprised Matrix and body-checked him from behind. Flying past Megabyte, Matrix collided with Odd and it knocked them both for a loop.

After releasing a bestial roar, Megabyte glared at William, 'What do you think you are doing?'

A dark cloud surrounded William until it coagulated into his right hand and formed his sword. He slammed the weapon into the ground and said, 'Things have changed. The Guardian Collective knows of the harvest. They have attacked.'

Angry, Megabyte exclaimed, 'That is your problem. This is MY hunt, MY victory.'

'That is not the way we see it.'

As they argued, Odd rolled out from underneath Matrix, sore. AndrAIa got over to Matrix and helped him up, then Odd. Enzo was huddled nearby with Mike, horribly terrified. Mike was even worse, his face started to strobe into static. Matrix saw the cut along her face and reached out to touch it, 'Are you okay?'

AndrAIa gently pushed his hand away, 'I'll be fine.' They looked off into the Park, which was being overrun with viruses. CPU squadrons were being decimated. A few viruses capable of flight were cutting down their air forces. Just moments before they thought they could win the battle, but now the viruses had the obvious upper hand. With heavy emotion, she said, 'What are we going to do now?'

With a restrained anger, Megabyte came in close to William's face, 'If you couldn't handle the Guardians you shouldn't have bothered coming to the net!'

'The Guardians are not the issue. By advancing your agenda it will secure our goals.'

'What could this system have anything to do with your…' The virus looked over at Odd, recalling the Lyoko warriors he had encountered, and then looked back at William. Realizing what was going on, he said nonchalantly, 'So…the great Xana is afraid. Not of the Guardian armada, nor of the Web, but of a handful of children.' His trademark chuckle escaped from him. 'Fine then, allow me to delete a select few and you can have the "Lyoko Warriors" after all.'

Without any sort of emotion, William said, 'Agreed.' He swung the sword onto his shoulder and they faced the group. Matrix stood forward between Megabyte and everyone else. Calling behind him, he said, 'Enzo, Mike. Leave. Get out of the park.' He accentuated, 'Now.' Just as Enzo was about to say something Matrix interrupted him, speaking without rage but with a firm intensity, 'No arguments. Go.' Enzo stumbled backwards for a moment, then turned completely and left with Mike trailing behind. They went into a small ravine and out of sight.

AndrAIa and Odd stood side by side with Matrix, anticipating the fight. Three other viruses surrounded them, and they tensed up slightly. Acting with experience around each other, Matrix yelled out, 'Move.' He and AndrAIa both sprinted away to a more secure area, with Odd suddenly standing alone.

Indignant, he yelled out, 'Hey!' Megabyte and William both moved in the direction Matrix and AndrAIa were running to, but Odd wasn't about to make it easy for them. He ran out, firing off a series of laser arrows. One shot hit Megabyte in the shoulder, throwing him off balance and he fell mid-stride. Odd leaped in the air and tried to drop kick William, who blocked him with his sword, then flung him away.

--

Enzo could hear the chaos behind him, explosions and fire whipping into the sky. He had seen similar things during the Daemon Wars, and it scared him then too. He turned and faced the noise, his breathing began to increase. Mike came to a stop when he realized Enzo wasn't running anymore. 'What are you doing?Matrix told us to leave.'

A tear suddenly rolled down Enzo's cheek, he had been trying not to cry all this time and he failed. Wiping away the tears, Enzo said, 'I not big enough. That's why I lost that game and that's why I can't help now.'

Mike nervously said, 'Enzo, you didn't lose the game, Matrix did.'

'I know. He became a renegade because I'm just a kid, not a warrior.' His jaw suddenly clenched tight and he chose to regain his resolve. 'That sprite from Lyoko… Odd. He's just a kid too. All of them are. So what's the difference between them and me?'

Mike suggested, 'An impossibly cool battle outfit…'

For whatever reason Enzo remembered what Odd had said to him in the Principle Office. "I just do what needs to be done. We all have our roles." As though an LED went off in his head, he exclaimed with joy, 'That's it! I never thought about this before. I'm not the hero!'

His face dropping in confusion, Mike said, 'and you're…happy about this?'

Excited, Enzo said, 'Yeah! All my life I've wanted to be like Bob. Bob _is_ the hero. But he couldn't be the hero without Dot to plan everything and Phong to give him wisdom.' A large smile grew across his face. 'I don't have to live in the games, become a renegade or even a Guardian. I only have to give Bob what he needs.' He grabbed Mike by the arm, 'And he needs more than a kid and an appliance.'

While Enzo dragged him somewhere, Mike noticed that they weren't heading towards the fight or the Principle Office. 'Uh…where are we going?'

Determined, Enzo said, 'We're going to put your big mouth to good use. We're going to the Kits Sector.'

Standing For Something

Joel slipped into the room Phong was held captive. He moved carefully to him, and then reached out to untie him. 'You must be Phong. I've been looking for you.' Phong weakly looked behind Joel, indicating that he had been seen. Joel turned around, seeing that a large group of virals had gathered behind a humanoid virus colored black and yellow, being the same one Joel had an encounter with earlier, which surprised him. After taking in their appearance, he said, 'You're from the Gihaz system. What are you doing here?'

The virus' eyes flickered slightly with the eye of Xana. He spoke with a reverberated noise, as though he was coughing through his words, 'I am called Tenex. My function is to delete you.' Before, this virus was a problematic berserker, now it had become a dedicated assassin for Xana. 

Stepping away from Phong, Joel turned his shoulders to face Tenex squarely on. With the virus standing a half-head taller than Joel, he still maintained a calm expression. 'You probably would like to get a de-fragment lozenge, clear that right up.' He lightly spread his feet, and carefully popped the knuckles on his hands. With authority, Joel told them, 'Back down and log off. I am a Guardian.' During the stand-off, he took a brief moment to look at Phong. Tenex took that moment to punch Joel in the face without hesitation, sending him across the room and hitting a cabinet of supplies. While not bringing down the cabinet, some items fell on top of him. 

The virals watching started to mock him, 'Oh wow, some impressive Guardian.' 'Yeah, Megabyte's gonna be pleased.' 'I hope so; it isn't fun getting on his bad side.'

Dizzy but aware, Joel stood up, shaking all the items that fell on top of him. He stepped back out to face Tenex square on. 'I don't think…that you are listening.' Tenex returned to his assault, taking Joel by the collar and delivering several blows to the stomach. He fell to one knee, but the virus pulled him back up and threw him across the room into another stack of supplies. After another moment to regain focus, Joel planted his palms on the ground to lift himself up. Partially buried by the random items, he saw a bag filled with jet-golf clubs. He reached out and silently pulled one out, hearing the footsteps of Tenex come closer. 

Moving as quickly as he could, he jammed the club head into the stomach of the virus, causing Tenex to stumble back in pain. Joel made another swing and clocked Tenex in the face, the impact bending the club rod in half. Tenex had fallen to a knee and Joel looked at the club number, a three-wood. He tossed the damaged club to the side and lifted up his left arm, 'Vostro…nine-iron.' Transforming into an impressive club, Joel held his keytool out and made the classic stance, yelling 'Fore!' He hobbled forward and gave all his weight into the swing, cracking Tenex in the chin and launching him across the room. 

He looked at the club and said, 'I need to tell Turbo I have a newfound respect for jet-golf.'

The virals watching the fight were stunned. One tried to rally everyone and said, 'Let's get him!'

Joel pointed the club-head of Vostro at the face of the viral, 'You want to be next?' The single viral exchanged looks with his comrades, then they all ran away in fear. Taking a look at the downed virus, Joel rubbed his jaw in pain and returned to Phong's side. He untied the elderly sprite, being careful to support his weight as he removed the restraints. 

Phong was weak and had a hard time seeing without his glasses. He asked with a strain, 'Who are you?' 

Joel removed the last restraint and gently carried Phong away, 'I'm a friend.'

--

Under the fire, Bob contacted Dot, 'This is not good. Wherever those viruses came from, we can't overpower them. We simply lost too much support fighting Megabyte's virals. We need backup.'

Racing through her list of squadrons, Dot said with frustration, 'That's all we can manage. The Principle Office has the firepower to back you up, but not enough people.'

Mouse looked over the system information, following the course of the battle, 'I'd say that we can drop the shields long enough for the Lyoko ship to get inside. But it won't do much if we can't win this battle.'

Suddenly a vid-window emerged with Enzo on the other side. He saluted his sister, 'Dot, we are ready at your command.'

'…Who?'

'The Calvary.'

A blank expression came across her, she had trouble finding the right words, 'Enzo…you're not going to fight are you?'

Never more serious, he said, 'Dot, please, just trust me.'

Still concerned, she composed herself and nodded, 'You have the command prompt.'

On his side of the window, Enzo gained a confident grin and quickly opened three other vid-widows. To his side was a small group of Mainframe citizens. The vid-windows he opened connected him to other locations around Mainframe. With a confidence he never had before, he said, 'Okay everyone, it's time to shine.' 

Closing all the vid-windows, Enzo lead the group into the Principle Office.

--

Bob formed an energy bubble to protect himself as an ABC crashed to the ground. The bubble protected him, but the impact still threw him to the side. Picking himself up, the velociraptor virus pounced on him from behind. Snarling its long row of teeth in his face, Bob had to hold its head back to keep the virus from biting his head off. Getting his leg up, he kicked the virus away and rolled to his feet. The raptor rebounded quickly and lunged at Bob a second time.

Ready for it this time, Bob issued the command, 'Glitch, energy pulse.' The ray blast slammed against the virus and not only stopped its attack, but easily knocked it back a significant distance. Turning his attention, he cringed when he saw a CPU officer be deleted by a spider-like virus. 'Glitch, containment rings.' The keytool emitted several rings that surrounded the spider virus and restrained it. Looking around, he saw Ulrich return to the battlefield and began a series of exchanges with a gremlin-like virus.

Before he could get to Ulrich's aid, he heard a deep growl behind him say, 'Guardian.' Upon turning around he came face to face against Megabyte. It was then he saw that many viruses, virals and even CPU officers had stopped the battle. Both sides had taken notice of a strange sight occurring along the outskirts of the park. Just as Megabyte was about to renew his attack, he froze and looked off in the distance to see what distracted everyone.

In the outskirts of Floating Point, a group of four binome civilians had gathered, watching the fight but strangely not afraid. To the other side of the park another group had gathered, growing in numbers. More civilians continued to group together, where there was once only four now because several dozen. Other groups around the park began to gather, people who had lived in Mainframe all their lives. Bob saw Indiana, Serena, Jean-Luc, Data Nully, Fax Modem and others he didn't know their names. Mr. Mitchell held up a club and lightly pounded his palm with it. All of the viruses, CPU officers and viral officers hushed down, stopped their actions as more people continued to file into the surroundings. Torque swung out a device that looked like a duck, but from its beak emerged a gun barrel. The crowd continued to grow: Kirk, Emma See and The Small Town Binomes still in their ridiculous costumes. More appeared, until they were so large that they no longer were individual groups, but a single crowd in a ring around the battlefield. Even the Mainframe Strolling Players were there. The people of Mainframe gathered in thousands, until there was not a single spot in Floating Point where it wasn't visible. 

All these people had taken heed to Enzos call to arms. With everyone spreading the message, it did not take long for every citizen of Mainframe to respond. And they were ready and willing to help their Guardians, both literal and spiritual. They wanted to help those who had saved them so many times.

Bob hung his mouth in surprise, Matrix lowered his gun and stood tall to try and see them all. Ulrich kept his swords in place, but repeatedly looked to both sides in awe. Yumi retracted her fans as she took in the sight. Aelita gracefully hovered higher in the air to see the people as they continued to gather. 

Even Megabyte was amazed, and intimidated. Even the virus army sent by Xana combined with his viral officers would never stand any chance against this.

A hushed silence prevailed for the moment, until one voice broke through. Odd exclaimed, 'Awesome!'

--

At the Principle Office, the shields lowered and many anti-aircraft guns opened from its dome, taking position towards Floating Point. In the center turret, Enzo sat in the chair, his scope mapping out the hostiles versus the allies. He looked around, the group he was with had taken control of the defenses, and even more were heading to take to the sky in CPU fighters. He opened communications and said proudly to Bob, 'We await your command, Guardian.'

Bob lifted his eyes to Megabyte, a smug grin escaped his mouth and he said, 'Let's do this.' Enzo relayed the message through the massive vid-windows around the Principle Office.

Megabyte saw the rushing wave as the population swarmed over his army. Even the more powerful viruses couldn't handle the onslaught. Overhead, his ABC's were being shot out of the sky by the Office turrets. The whine of additional CPU fighters filled the air. Returning his gaze to Bob, Megabyte said with confidence, 'I can safely say that this was both my finest moment and yours. But I am a virus and you will not stop me. The hunt I promised will only be delayed.' He suddenly made a break for the outskirts of Mainframe, crashing through the citizens and making sure he got through.

Seeing the move of Megabyte, Bob called out to Matrix. 'Matrix! Follow him! Don't let him get out of your sight!'

Matrix obeyed and instantly took off on his zip-board. Odd saw his move and yelled after him, 'Hey! Wait for me!' He ran behind but Matrix was already off. 'Jeremie, can you get me the overboard?'

Within moments the overboard materialized in front of him and he was off. Matrix was some distance ahead, he had his gun ready and was hoping to finally get off a clear shot. 

Unfortunately it wasn't about to happen as William appeared again. Rematerializing in the air from his super-smoke, he smashed into a CPU fighter and critically damaged it. Reverting back to his super-smoke, he guided the smoldering husk to crash into Matrix. Odd caught sight of what was about to happen and he sped up. He slammed into Matrix to knock him out of the way, causing him to drop his gun by accident. To avoid being hit by the fighter himself, Odd bailed off his overboard, jumping to and grabbing onto Matrix in a piggy-back ride. His overboard was destroyed and Matrix came to a halt.

Matrix screamed at him. 'Get off; I need to get my gun back.'

Odd pointed at Megabyte, 'We don't have time, keep Megabyte in your sight. Just get me close enough.' Through the chaos William created, Matrix and Odd got through the line of burning wreckage and chased after the virus. Matrix pushed forward at reckless speeds and Odd repositioned himself on Matrix's back. Climbing, he had one knee of Matrix's shoulder and one foot on the other shoulder. As he was trying to get higher, Odd slipped and his body landed on Matrix's head. 

Just barely keeping his balance but losing his patience, Matrix yelled, 'Kid, you are really getting my back-up.'

Ignoring him, Odd just said, 'Almost there.' Megabyte was running at full speed and Odd jumped off Matrix's shoulders, catching Megabyte by the head and swinging his body around him. That forced Megabyte into a forward flip and he landed with a long scrapping skid until he came to the end, while Odd tumbled about repeatedly. As Odd got to his feet he saw that Megabyte had dropped Enzo's icon between them and he pounced on it as quickly as he could, retrieving it. Megabyte had gotten up about the same time, the virus had ended up right next to the edge of the main sector. The energy sea and the docks could be seen beyond that boundary. 

Matrix came to a rest beside Odd and got off his zip-board. Facing against his sworn enemy, Matrix said, 'It's over, virus. For good this time.'

With that confident grin still in place, Megabyte said, 'Oh, I still have my allies.'

From behind them, a distinct sound could be heard, like it was the rumbling of rocks. Odd recognized the noise and alerted Matrix, 'Back away!' Williams smoke trail passed right through them, but they had jumped away far enough that he could not strike. Instead, William surprising took his place beside Megabyte, holding his massive sword behind his head. Odd took aim but waited, knowing William could easily deflect his arrows. Matrix's eye softly glowed while changing into its targeting mode, he was working on something.

Twisting his sword, William spoke intelligently, saying, 'Xana is here to rebuild the net, solidifying control of all systems and he will return to Lyoko far more powerful then you can dream.' 

Megabyte said to Matrix, 'In a strange twist of fortune these "Lyoko Warriors" learned of my deal with Xana. I'm not sure how, but it does not matter. Eventually Xana and I will have no use for each other, he knows it and I know it. But until then I have access to his power, and I will return. You think you have won…' He emitted a laugh. 'This system will be gone by the end of tomorrow. If you do not surrender, the forces of Xana descend upon you, and will block out the sky.'

Growing angry, Matrix said, 'Then we will fight in the shade.'

Quickly arguing with him, Megabyte said, 'This is self-deletion. This is random, boy.'

Gritting his teeth, Matrix was about to respond until Odd stepped forward. With anger he never had before he punctuated each word, 'Random? This is Mainframe!' He jumped forward with the intention to drop-kick Megabyte in the chest and off the edge. Instead Megabyte's large form hardly moved and Odd bounced off and landed flat on his back.

As soon as Odd made the move, Matrix spun around to grab hold of his gun; he had activated the return-file command. He leveled it towards Megabyte, but William stepped in the way. Matrix fired and William used the large surface area of his blade to absorb the impact. The force of the explosion pushed William back against Megabyte and they both fell off the edge. 

Matrix moved to the side and followed their fall with his right eye, watching as William grabbed onto Megabyte and they both disappeared in a bubble of smoke. He pointed his gun in their direction, holding it there in case they reappeared.

Odd got up rubbing the back of his head. He walked to the edge and stood next to Matrix, peering over the edge. 'So…where did they go?'

Matrix kept a solemn look before pulling his gun back, 'I don't know. But it's not over.'

Authors Commentary

In the climactic moment, all the people I listed have actually been seen on ReBoot, either known by name or by a parody of a character. 

This chapter is the longest one by a good amount, and I still took a lot out. I wanted to be sure that this was a devastating battle and if it was too short it would not have been as impacting. And making it into another chapter seemed superfluous. 

Teaser for the next chapter-

_With the immediacy of war gone, the Lyoko Warriors find it more difficult to hide their real identities from the Mainframers. Megabyte's parting remarks loom over their heads; everyone is affected in a different way. The battle for control of Mainframe has ended, but to stop Xana it will require the greatest minds of the net, and the powers of a user._


	10. Delayed the Inevitable

Authors Commentary

Sorry for the very much delayed update, I had to take a break. I will blame it on how busy I was over the last few months, but ultimately I was just lazy. I have full intentions on completing this story, if only to just have the satisfaction of completing it. One big writer's block I have is in how I structure the storyline and dialogue. I try to get everything to have a flow to it, easing into the next line of story instead of blatant and rather dull dialogue like "Hey, let's go here."

This chapter and the next chapter are going to be significantly more relaxed; the eye of the storm so to speak.

* * *

**Devastation: Code Lyoko Rebooted**

Chapter 9: Delayed the Inevitable

The sky of Mainframe was still red and black, a constant reminder that they were not out of the hole quite yet. Down in the Mainframe docks, this image was only compounded since so much of the sky could be seen. Matrix crept up beside a crate with his gun in hand and peering around a corner. He was trying to be quiet, suspicious of activity down in that area. Odd broke the silence by saying, 'Hey big guy, I think there are more things to shoot at back at the park.'

Matrix replied, 'Those viruses are being taken care of, I'm wondering if that smoke show was just something to distract us.'

-=-

AndrAIa was sitting in on a bench, having a medic bandaging the cut on her face. Behind her was a command post working to correlate the crowd control. Bob came in on a zipboard and dropped down. Yumi and Aelita were close behind. Bob said, 'We've managed to contain all of the viruses, but we don't have jail cells for all of them.'

AndrAIa replied, 'Anything about Phong?'

'Dot told me that Joel recovered him before the viruses came. He's safe in the Principle Office.'

Aelita asked, 'If we had access to our ship, we might be able to help with your hardware difficulties.'

AndrAIa nodded, and then pointed across the way and said to Aelita, 'Your ship is in that truck over there, Dot had it sent out as soon as things calmed down.'

Surprised somewhat, Aelita said, 'You are prepared.'

Bob said, 'That's Dot for you. Come on…' Bob led the Lyoko group over to the truck.

Aelita said to Jeremie, 'You catch all that.'

Jeremie said, 'Yeah, I've started bringing the main power back on line.'

The trailer opened up from the top to allow the Skid to escape. Slowly rising vertically, it didn't take long for Aelita to be teleported into the main cockpit. She began working at the controls, guiding the Skid up towards one of the Principle Office energy pylons. Jeremie said, 'I hope this'll work, I don't want to fry their command pathways.'

Aelita said, 'We'll go with a low bandwidth pulse, until we know if it works.'

A red beam emerged from the Skid and interfaced with the energy pylon. The passing energy swirled for a minute before continuing on through. Jeremie said, 'We're in. Let's see what we can find.'

**-=-**

Everyone in Mainframe was curious to what they were doing, but especially in the War Room. Dot was looking over Mouse's shoulder, trying to make sense of what they were looking at. 'Any change? Do you know what they are doing?'

After a moment trying to figure it out on her own; Mouse shrugged, 'Not sure. They are moving through the various program files faster than I could think, but it's like they don't even know what they are looking for.'

-=-

Aelita called out, 'Wait Jeremie, go back to that last pathway.'

After doing so, Jeremie said, 'We found it; that looks like the networking controls.'

Aelita said, 'Mainframe is far from a supercomputer, trying to search through the command protocols it is like building a sandcastle with a bulldozer.'

Jeremie said, 'I'm activating the wash program, be my eyes and ears on this okay?'

'Sure.'

The program uploaded itself into the hardware, and it wasn't long before power all around the system dimmed for a brief moment, then returned to normal. A sonic "ping" was emitted from the system into the energy sea, which ran itself straight into the system wall, eventually clearing away the dark sky and returned it to the pristine white and blue.

**-=-**

As soon as the system sky was cleared, Bob quickly put in a call to Turbo. Turbo was at his desk, looking harried and stressed. As soon as he saw Bob's face he exclaimed, 'Bob! Mainframe is back on the network?'

'Yeah, I think you know about Lyoko.'

Turbo said, 'Yes, I do. This is good news, Mainframe is the first to go online again.' He got very serious, 'I need to talk with everyone, including Joel and the Lyoko sprites.'

Bob asked, 'I'll get Joel and meet up with Dot in the War Room in just a nano.' He closed the vid-window and quickly opened new a vid-window to Joel. Joel was at work with an engineering crew in a hanger bay to repair the Expedition, his head was under an engine component, one hand was full of wires and the other hand held a soldering gun. A few binomes behind him were fitting the outside with new hull armor.

Bob called out, 'Joel.'

Surprising him, Joel reared his head back and slammed into the frame. Cringing in pain while holding his head, he turned him attention to Bob. 'Yeah.'

'Sorry about that.' Bob pointed at Joels bruised eye, 'Looks like you've found some action.'

Joel lightly rubbed it, 'I had a run in with one of those viruses.'

'Well, Turbo wants to meet with us in the war room.'

Joel looked at his ship, then back to Bob and sighed, '…okay I'll be there shortly.' He looked at the repair crew and suddenly yelled at them, pointing at a piece of equipment they were working with, 'No! This one goes there; that one goes there…got it?'

Ominous Revelations

By this time, everyone had gathered into the war room except for Matrix and Odd, who were still prowling around Mainframe.

Turbo revealed new images taken of Xana's ship. It was a relatively simple design; it had the general shape of a teardrop with the underbelly flattened. Everything else appeared completely internalized; the only real texture on the ship was layers of armor plating.

Turbo said, 'Even with our preparations, the ship overwhelmed our forces. The issue was that we simply could not do enough damage; it is about ten times the size of your principle office. We are doing our best to track it, but it is currently under our search engines. I can only assume it is looking for another system to conquer.'

Bob asked, 'You think it is going to target the Supercomputer soon?'

Turbo said, 'It's hard to tell. I'd imagine if it is collecting operating cores the Supercomputer would be the juiciest prize.'

Joel stated, 'I think it will be targeting Mainframe next.'

Turbo asked, 'What makes you so sure?'

Joel explained, 'Look at what just happened here. Xana tried to eliminate his only real threat.'

Dot said, 'I think I see what you're going. This "Xana" went through a lot of trouble to interrupt the latest battle, but he was targeting the Lyoko team. If the Supercomputer is the last stop, Xana would want to take them down _before_ he makes his final plans.'

Turbo said, 'Xana can travel quickly across the net, about as fast as we use the portals. I can only assume that the ship is just too large to transport using his faster methods. If we do manage to stop this ship, what is to prevent Xana from escaping and start this up all over again?'

Joel said to Bob and Dot, 'I was told that there were two people here that hold the answer to that. Phong was one of them and he is recuperating in the infirmary. The other is someone named "Talon." It doesn't match any records that we have.'

Bob and Dot reacted in surprise to that name. Bob said, 'Talon? Where did you get that name?'

Joel said, 'Someone with a connection to Xana told me he could help, and that was all.'

Dot said, 'Talon is a former Codemaster. Phong gave him sanctuary here a long time ago.'

Joel and Turbos' eyes widened in surprise. Turbo said, 'A Codemaster ally would be very nice to have right about now.'

Yumi asked, 'What is a Codemaster?'

Mouse explained, 'They are a guild of powerful modders. They manipulate code using a staff weapon called a Gibson Coil Pike.'

Dot said, 'Old Man Pearson is what we call him now, he runs the data dump.'

-=-

Dot, Mouse, Bob and Turbo continued to talk about what they need to do, while Joel approached Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita and motioned for them to move into the corner. 'You saw all of that, what do you think?'

Ulrich said, 'If Xana is on the move and you've found a way to track him, we should go out and say "Hi."'

Aelita said, 'The Skid's weapons aren't operational in this environment. I'll guess that the Nav-Skids are just as useless.'

Joel suggested, 'What if I took you out in my ship?'

Yumi said, 'I'm not sure how far away we can get from the Skid.' She turned her head as she said, 'Jeremie, could we leave the Skid here in Mainframe and move out into the net with Joel?'

Jeremie replied, 'You would be able to exist in the net on your own terms, but the Skid's range extends to all of Mainframe, no further. That means I won't be able to communicate with you and the Skid won't redirect you back to the scanners if you lose your life-points.'

Yumi looked back to the others, 'I guess that isn't an option for us.'

Aelita said, 'Well, we are assuming Xana is coming after us, so we really don't need to leave Mainframe. We can be our own bait.'

Yumi said, 'That makes sense. Let Xana come to us, and we'll be ready for him. We have home field advantage.'

Ulrich replied, 'But we don't have home field advantage, Yumi. This isn't our home. We shouldn't be relying on everyone here to take care of our problems.'

Joel said, 'Then I'll find some other way.'

-=-

With this information Joel turned back to Bob and Dot, 'Here is what I think needs to happen…' He pointed to Turbo, 'Keep doing what you are doing, find that ship. Assume it is not coming to Mainframe and search other internet pathways in case we are wrong.' He pointed to Dot, 'Make preparation for the biggest war of your processing life. You likely only have a second or two.' He then looked at Bob, 'As soon as my ship is repaired, I'm going to take it into the outer regions of Mainframe's internet pathway. I will be the early warning system if anything is going on.'

He looked over to the Lyoko Warriors, then to Dot, 'They are here to help and are probably your best ally, but they don't know the rules around here.' He paused for a moment, then said, Joel replied, 'I need to repair my ship first, so if you'll excuse me.' Joel left the war room.

Dot quickly went to work. 'Okay, our first priority would be to complete containment of the viruses and infected.'

Jeremie called to Aelita, 'I actually have a plan if you think it is wise. Maybe I could link up with the War Room's communication monitors so I can talk to them directly.'

Aelita quietly replied, 'That sounds like a smart idea, since Joel is going into the net.' She then said to Dot, 'I think Jeremie has a plan.'

Suddenly another vid-window opened up. Jeremie's image came into focus and the Mainframers got their first look at him. He introduced himself, 'Hello, my name is Jeremie and I am the operations manager of Lyoko.' Everyone was caught off guard with his sudden appearance.

Seeing the awkwardness, Aelita quickly spoke up, 'We have an audio link with him and he has been helping us through our ship.'

Dot stood forward, 'Well, I would like to thank you for your help.'

Jeremie said, 'Well you're welcome. But I believe I can help you with you virus problem. In uploading the modem wash program, I found your system anti-virus scan. That should take care of everything.'

Dot asked disbelievingly, 'You can do that? That's a user operation.'

'Sure, I could do it right now, but I don't want to overstep my bounds, this is your city after all.'

Dot was about to give him the "go-ahead" but Bob spoke up, 'Wait, that program would not only clean infected citizens but also delete the viruses.'

Jeremie said, 'That is the programs function. What's wrong with it?'

'The viruses are right now prisoners of war. Just outright deleting them is not what I want to happen. I don't want to be part of a massacre.'

Jeremie nodded his head and looked over his information. 'Then I'll need Aelita's help to adjust the anti-virus settings.'

-=-

Joel walked into the repair bay, where his ship was being refitted with a new power conduit. After some time helping to get it locked into place, the technology manager Hugh approached him and said, 'We're not the Supercomputer, but your ship should be good to go soon.' He checked his clipboard, 'All things considered the cost of repair was minimal.' He handed a bill to him.

Joel looked it over and in disbelief he said, 'You're charging me for this?'

'You are not on the systems insurance. Your ship isn't part of the Mainframe CPU fleet.' Joel was about to protest again when Hugh added, 'You're lucky it didn't cost more. It's a tough little ship.'

Frustrated and indignant, Joel said, '…Little?'

Bob entered briefly with Ulrich, Aelita and Yumi behind him. He quickly walked to Joel's side and took hold of the bill, 'Dot will take care of this.' After Hugh had left, Bob said, 'Are you certain about this?'

'No. But that is beside the point.'

'I am all for going into things by the seat of your pants, but any plan ahead of time is always a good idea.'

Joel replied, 'Bob, you are this system's guardian, you are here to protect it. I am a net guardian, but our function is still the same, To Mend and Defend. I have my role, and you have yours.'

Bob quietly nodded, then said, 'Take care of yourself, okay.'

'I will.' They turned to leave but Joel had one last thing to say, 'Wait…' He paused to gather his thoughts, 'I…saw some awkwardness between you and Ms. Matrix.'

'How did you…'

Joel quickly said, 'I just want to suggest that you make the most of the time you have. We live in difficult times.'

After releasing a depressed sigh, Bob said, 'Thanks. May the user be with you.'

Joel picked up a tool and briefly glanced at Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi. With a modest grin, he said, 'You too.'

-=-

Bob, Aelita and Yumi excited the PO and walked up to the Skid. Aelita quickly materialized into the pilot's seat. Aelita began working with Jeremie to customize the anti-virus program.

After a short time, Odd and Matrix arrived on zip-boards. They got off and joined with the others outside. Matrix said, 'We found one virus that escaped the security sweeps. Other then that I think we are safe.'

Bob said, 'Not yet. We've received information on a massive city destroying net cruiser heading our way.'

Matrix and Odd say in unison, 'What!?'

Bob opened a vid-window and quickly briefed them on what was going on. '…and the Guardian Joel is about to leave to scout the surrounding internet hub.'

Matrix sighed, 'No time to rest, is there?'

Bob said, 'Mainframe seems to be the focal point of so much disaster because we are the only ones able to deal with it all. Any other city would have been deleted a long time ago. We can deal with the ship, we always have.' He paused for a moment, then said, 'We should probably figure out a name for the thing, we can't just keep calling it "The Ship."'

Yumi said, 'All of Xana's creations we have had to name ourselves. Odd is usually the one to name it.' She looks over at him.

Odd put his hand on his chin, thinking for a moment. 'Let's see, an ominous weapon for the Harbinger of Death. Let's call it Thanatos.'

Yumi asked, 'What's that?'

'One of the names of the Grim Reaper.'

A long silence prevailed in the group, both because Bob and Matrix had no idea what he was talking about, and because Yumi was somewhat disturbed. 'You scare me sometimes, Odd.'

Bob received a notice from Glitch that Joel was ready to leave. Within a nano, the repair bay doors opened and the Expedition took off into the sky. Far off in the distance, a portal was opened and the ship exited into the net.

Everyone had their necks craned up to watch and Aelita called out, 'We're done, activating the program now.'

The sky above Mainframe warped into a golden vortex above, the system called out, 'Warning: Incoming Virus Scan.' The vortex erupted with fireworks, as green energy swirled around everyone in Mainframe, including the Lyoko sprites. It didn't take long before all the infected people all over Mainframe were cleaned. Matrix was visibly confused, looking around Mainframe and back to the Skid. He pointed to Aelita and asked Bob, 'They did that?'

Bob nodded and shrugged his shoulders, 'I'm not complaining.'

Odd looked up at Aelita in the pilot seat, then over at Yumi. With just a mild observation, he asked, 'Hey, where's Ulrich?'

Both Yumi and Bob looked behind them, realizing that Ulrich had not been by them for some time.

Yumi quickly said, 'Jeremie, do you know where Ulrich is?'

Jeremie glanced at his map of Mainframe and Ulrich alias card. Confused, he said, 'That's strange, Ulrich is not in range of the skid, so I can't contact him. But his alias information is still operating. Where did he go?'

Yumi and Bob exchanged glances, and then looked into the sky where the Expedition had left.

New Directives

Upon leaving Mainframe, Joel swung the ship around a hub and said, 'You can come out now, we've already left.'

Caught by surprise, Ulrich got out from his hiding place, 'You knew I was here? Why didn't you kick me out?'

'I figured you knew what you were getting yourself into. Plus I wouldn't mind the company.' Ulrich took a seat next to him. 'The question I have is why are you doing this with me?'

Pausing for a moment, Ulrich explained, 'It's a lot easier for me to be active then just wait. My team mates are willing to just let this thing attack us. Your strategy made the most sense to me. I'd rather help you track it down and stop it _here,_ instead of letting it get to Mainframe.'

'I can respect that.'

Ulrich turned the conversation around, 'Here's my question. You don't really know the people of Mainframe, or even us from Lyoko. Why are you doing this?'

Joel paused, then answered with, 'I gave an oath to keep the net safe, To Mend and Defend. Some things go beyond family or friends.'

-=-

The group had returned to the war room and Mouse brought up the repair bay security cameras. Very shortly after Bob left with Aelita and Yumi, Ulrich had slipped back in and snuck inside the Expedition. Mouse said, 'He's with Joel, all right. And Joel is right now on radio silence.'

Yumi exclaimed, 'He actually went on that suicide mission! Of all the stupid, empty-headed moronic…'

Matrix said, 'Don't worry about it. Just hope he doesn't get deleted.' Yumi shot a glare at Matrix that made even the mighty renegade check his wording twice. She stormed off to the other side of the room. Matrix leaned toward Odd and whispered, 'Is she always this intense?'

Odd shrugged his shoulders, 'Not always…but often.'

Hearing his remark, Yumi stormed back to that side of the room and grabbed Odd by the shirt. 'Do you think this is funny?!' Terrified, he took notice that he wasn't normally at eye level with Yumi, and glanced down to see that Yumi was holding him off the ground. He clenched his mouth shut and nervously shook his head "no." She added, 'You know full well that if he leaves the area of Mainframe then the Skid can't protect him.'

Dot moved to Yumi's side, 'Please, let him down. Not in my War Room.' Yumi grudgingly obliged, and Dot consoled her with, 'Joel is a guardian with an advanced ship. Your friend is a skilled fighter. If we do our part I'm sure we'll bring him home.'

Bob said, 'Hey, Yumi. Why don't you go with me to see Old Man Pearson?'

The tactic didn't make any sense to her, 'Why me?'

Bob said, 'Well, he doesn't like me very much, but if you come and explain your story it might have more weight.'

Dot said to Aelita and Odd, 'With the infected military now clean, I think we can handle the preparations. If you want, you can sight-see around Mainframe for the time being. We'll need you for the battle, but there isn't much you can work on now.'

**-=-**

Shortly afterwards everyone split up, Yumi left with Bob to go see Old Man Pearson and Dot organized a transport to take Odd and Aelita to Dot's Diner. They were given a few tickets offering free meals. They took seats at the bar while Cecil handed them a few things to eat.

Eyeing the food, Odd took hold of the energy shake and said, 'Now this should be interesting.' He carefully sucked on the straw, swallowed carefully and gave a satisfied smile. 'I like it.'

Aelita took a sip off hers and her reaction was pretty much the same. 'I can't really taste any flavor, but it just feels good to have it, like a glass of ice water on a hot day.' Odd nodded in agreement.

They spent some time eating their food, but then noticed a few people walking by, giving them a strange look. Aelita released a sigh and said to Odd, 'I'm not sure how much longer we can convince them that we are merely "advanced sprites." They're going to wonder who we really are.'

Startling them, Enzo showed up behind them, 'What do you mean by that?'

Startling them, Odd and Aelita both turned inward to look at Enzo, accidently bumping their foreheads together. After recoiling back, rubbing their heads in pain, they exchanged worried glances at each other, dumbfounded as how to respond. Odd eventually said, 'Nothing… we're not hiding anything.'

'Dude, I wasn't compiled last second. I know all about being sneaky and the adults are always keeping things from me. You just said something you didn't want me to hear.'

Caught in his trap, Odd said, 'Just don't tell anyone, okay.'

'I don't really know anything except that you aren't who you say you are.' A mischievous grin came upon his face, 'I could use some incentive…'

Responding with shock, Odd said, 'You're a little extortionist!'

Aelita stepped between the two and said, 'I'll handle this.' She looked at Enzo and smiled brightly, 'How about this, if you don't tell anyone and show us around Mainframe for the afternoon, we will tell you everything you want to know later. And it'll be our little secret.'

Aelita maintained the sweet smile as Enzo looked back at her, deciding upon her conditions. Then a large smile crossed over him and he said, 'You got it.' He moved to lead them somewhere, 'I'll take you to see the Circuit Races Grand Prix.' He led Aelita out of the Diner.

Aelita kept up with Enzo and slyly gave a wink to Odd. Incredulous, Odd followed behind shaking his head. He muttered under his breath, 'Oh the advantages of being a hot chick.'

-=-

Bob knocked on the door to the dusty old building in the midst of the data dump. From inside a cranky old voice with a Scottish accent said, 'Go away. I'm not open.'

Raising her eyebrows, Yumi said to Bob, 'He doesn't sound pleasant.'

'Did you think he would be anything but?' He pounded on the door a second time. 'Mr. Pearson, we don't have anything to recycle, we are more interested in talking with a certain Codemaster.'

A moment passed by before the door swung open and the old binome stepped outside and pointed at Bob aggressively. 'You had better not be wasting my RAM on this boy. You don't dare say something like that half-ascii'd.'

'Trust me, this is for real.'

Pearson looked around and took notice of Yumi. 'Is this your girlfriend?'

Instinctively Bob raised his hands and protested, 'Whoa! No..no…no. This is Yumi, a friend.' Both embarrassed and disturbed, Yumi became shy and blushed.

Looking them both over again a few times, Pearson then turned around and went inside, barking behind him, 'Come in, then.'

-=-

Aelita took her seat in the bleachers overlooking a sports court. Odd was playing against Enzo; the object of the game was to prevent the center puck from reaching the wall behind you. They had on boots that kept them hovering in the air, and paddles on each hand that allowed them to hit the puck back and forth.

The match continued as Enzo demonstrated how proficient at this game he was. The first round Odd was completely aced by Enzo, made even worse by the fact that he wasn't able to return a single volley. The second round wasn't much better, also being easily beaten, but he did get really excited when he managed to make his first return pass.

Aelita enjoyed the game, watching the puck rebound off the side walls, adding to the already fast paced nature of the game. Various people passed by, stopping for a moment to stare at her. She wasn't completely oblivious to it, but did wonder what the deal was. A teenage group gathered behind her, eventually someone approached her, a teenage female binome with a blue dress and pigtails. The girl seemed extremely shy as she approached her, so Aelita tried to help her relax a little and said, 'Can I help you with something?'

The girl folded her arms behind her and fidgeted, gathering the courage to speak. '…You're Aelita, right?' Aelita nodded and the girl continued, 'We were wondering…' she looked back at her group of friends, who silently urged her on. 'How were you able to do all that stuff?

Trying to be casual about it, Aelita asked, 'What stuff?'

'You know…' The girl waved her arms and pantomimed the things she was describing, 'Flying in the sky, shooting energy bolts from your hands, stuff like Hexadecimal would do. And were you the one who started the system anti-virus command? Only the user can do that kind of stuff. What's your format?'

Caught by surprise, Aelita stumbled to create an answer, having to think of things in their terms. 'Uh…I'm the System Administrator for Lyoko. It allows me to do some…random… stuff like that.'

A bell went off that indicated the game was finished. Aelita politely nodded to the girl, 'Excuse me.' And she went to the court floor.

Enzo said with a little pride, 'Game, set and match.' Odd was on the ground, panting slightly after loosing so horribly.

Because Odd is rarely the one to lose at a game, Aelita rubbed a little salt in the wound saying, 'Wow Odd, you just got…what's the word? Pwned?'

Odd flashed an indignant look her direction, while Enzo added, 'Don't feel too bad. I've been doing this a lot longer then you have.'

Odd added, 'Who would have thought _Pong_ would beat the adrenaline out of foosball?'

-=-

Enzo led Odd and Aelita to another section of Mainframe, heading into the theater district in Baudway. They could see the marquee sign lit up and proudly displayed up front. _The True Stories of Mainframe._ Enzo said excitedly, 'If you want to know Mainframes history, this gives you a good idea.'

Aelita looked over to see a long line to get to the box office, but to her surprise Enzo led them right around it and straight towards the front entrance. 'You already have the tickets?'

Shaking his head "no," Enzo explained, 'Dot owns 40 percent of the company. We have a private balcony to watch it from.'

Without warning, the sky turned dark and cloudy, with a purple vortex opening in the sky. The system voice announced, 'Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game.'

Enzo looked up, seeing that it was going to land directly on top of them. The box office line started to panic a little and scatter, trying to escape. Aelita began to worry herself a little and quickly contacted Jeremie, 'A game is going to land on us. Should that be a problem?'

Jeremie replied, 'No, you are linked up to the Skid, so there shouldn't be any danger of being dragged out from it. I'd recommend just having fun. And Odd, this should be a good learning experience for you on the other end.'

'Real funny Jeremie.'

As the game landed on top of them, the purple energy stabilized into a large landscape, with them standing on a ledge looking over a forested valley. Enzo said, 'I think I've heard of this game before.'

Matrix's gruff voice spoke up behind them, 'This is "The Legacy of Paracelsus." …Enzo, you know you're not supposed to run into the games.'

Enzo said, 'Hey, it dropped down on us, okay.' He paused for a moment, then realized, '"Legacy of Paracelsus," I think I heard Bob talking about this one. It's supposed to be one of the more intense games to play.'

Odd asked, 'Why is that?' His line was punctuated by an earth shattering noise and they turned to see a mountain cliff crumble apart and fall into a nearby valley.

To answer his question AndrAIa said, 'That's why. Just watch your step.'

Matrix double-clicked his icon and said, 'Reboot!'

Matrix was enveloped by purple energy and the game character information downloaded into his format and when it cleared he was shorter and slimmer then he normally was, had red armor and a pair of broadswords at his side. AndrAIa and Enzo followed suit and did the same. She also became shorter and had her hair intricately braided down her back and a blue and white robe. Enzo actually increased in size to match their height and had a similar colored outfit as AndrAIa, but had a sleeveless tunic with loose fitting pants and his hair was into a short knot in the back.

Jeremie observed what was happening digitally to them and exclaimed, 'This is interesting. It's a temporary shell program being installed overtop of them from the game information. It is a completely random process.' Curious, he quickly applied a simulated process of doing the same thing to their alias cards.

Enzo asked, 'Aren't you going to reboot?'

Jeremie's simulation finished with a compatible success. 'Hey Odd, you want to be a game character?'

Grateful for Jeremie's timing, Odd said, 'Uh…sure. How about you, Aelita?'

'Sounds okay.'

Jeremie stretched out his fingers and began working on the process. 'You guys ready. Say the word.'

Confused, Odd mumbled, 'Is that necessary?'

'No, but hey, when in Rome…'

Odd and Aelita looked at each other, then shrugged. With no icon to click, they just said together, 'Reboot!'

Jeremie activated the randomized game character program on their alias cards and they changed appearance. Aelita had a green and brown tunic with dark hair and a wide brimmed conical hat. Odd was completely bald and had an orange tunic with a maroon cloak and came with a staff.

Aelita took one look at Odd and snickered. Confused, Odd said, 'What's wrong.' He looked himself over, then looked up to see Aelita referencing her own hair to him. Panicked, Odd ran his hands over his head and felt how it was completely smooth. 'What? My hair!'

-=-

The Expedition was cruising through the net pathway, set on a specific course. Things were uncomfortably quiet for a while, then Ulrich asked, 'What do you think is going to happen? To the net and everything.'

Joel shrugged, 'I'm thinking we only have one chance to stop Xana. We know the destination, and unless we stop that ship now, we aren't going to.' He flew into a hub marked Hub 509 and went through a corridor. After a little while he started to approach the designated location. 'We're arriving at Hub Worf 507.' As he exited the transfer stream, the image overwhelmed their scope of vision. Scraps of ships were scattered as far as they could see. Surrounding the hub, torn shreds formed a morbid ring around it. Burned out husks of large command ships were also there.

Gloomily looking at the husks of destroyed ships, he could make out several of the larger command ships and including the flag ship.

With a stunned intonation, he read off, 'Milgauss, Cestello, Danaos, Explorer.'

Remaining respectful, Ulrich asked, 'What was that?'

Saddened, he replied, 'The names of those ships.' He looked at Ulrich humbly, 'Your Xana crippled the backbone of the Guardian armada.'

* * *

Authors Commentary

I wasn't very subtle about the inspiration for the game, was I? Oh well.

I said before in the commentary that I didn't want to create a new character for this series, but that I needed to. Since I made that decision, I've been very meticulous about his role. To make sure he didn't overshadow anything, I've been throwing a lot of crap Joel's way. Getting shot down and beaten up, etc. Getting overcharged for repairs is probably my favorite moment.

Although the reason I took so long with this chapter is because I didn't have an individual character taking charge. Everyone else, including Dot, was mostly concerned about the present problem with viruses. The Lyoko Warriors only help on a tech level with Jeremie, otherwise they are mostly in combat. Without really meaning to, I fulfilled what Franz Hopper said a few chapters ago about Joel being the emissary between the two groups. I wrote it in that earlier chapter because I thought it sounded interesting, and the organic flow of the story made it work. This chapter didn't start working for me until I had him step in and issue orders.

Teaser for the Next Chapter-

_Odd and Aelita learn what it means to be a part of "The Games." Yumi and Bob confront a retired Codemaster. Dot begins arming the Mainframe military. Joel and Ulrich talk about their lives and responsibilities. Everyone prepares for the arrival of Thanatos._


End file.
